Itau to agree BPI stance with owners

LISBON (Reuters) - Brazilian bank Itau will align its position over Millennium bcp's (BCP) 4.3-billion-euro ($5.2 billion) bid for Banco BPI with BPI's board and other shareholders, Itau Chief Executive Roberto Setubal said on Monday.

During the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit, Setubal said Itau, which holds 16.1 percent of BPI, had been surprised by BCP's bid.

BCP, Portugal's biggest listed bank by market capitalization, launched an all-cash bid for far smaller BPI this month, offering 5.70 euros a share. The stock closed at 5.94 euros on Monday.

Analysts have said BCP's offer could only succeed if the bank drew support from BPI's core shareholders, such as Itau.

"Itau received this buyout bid with surprise, there was no way we were expecting it. Itau is going to act within this proposal, jointly with BPI's board, other shareholders," Setubal said in Itau's first official comment on the bid.

"We will be totally in line with the other shareholders and thus there will be no surprise as to Itau's position in that sense," he said in a telephone interview from Brazil.

Other leading BPI shareholders are Spanish savings bank La Caixa and German insurer Allianz.

Setubal said Itau saw BPI as a bank with high value and great growth prospects.

Shares in BPI rose shortly after Setubal's comments and were up more than 1 percent before paring gains. The stock closed 0.3 percent higher at 5.94 euros as the benchmark PSI20 index ended down 0.1 percent and the DJ Stoxx banks index was down 0.8 percent.

BCP closed 1.1 lower percent at 2.64 euros.