BPI is about to leave the Angolan market after more than three decades of presence, culminating with the announcement of the sale of the 33.35% it held in Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA) to Grupo Carrinho. The story began in 1993, when Banco de Fomento e Exterior opened a branch in Angola, which was acquired by BPI in 1996 and transformed into BFA in 2002, initially 100% owned by the Portuguese bank. This investment proved extraordinarily profitable: an initial outlay of just three million euros generated returns exceeding 900 million over the years.
BPI's exit from Angola was forced by the European Central Bank, which in December 2014 ordered the Portuguese bank to reduce its exposure to the country, after Angola was left out of countries with banking supervision equivalent to European standards. This regulatory requirement triggered a long journey of progressive reduction of BPI's position, which sold stakes to Unitel in 2008 (49.9% for 366 million euros) and in 2017 (an additional 2%, losing control of BFA).
Between 2014 and 2018, BPI received 370 million euros in dividends from Angola, subsequently accounting for the 48.1% stake as a purely financial investment. From 2019 until 2025, the bank received an additional 394 million euros in Angolan dividends, including approximately 43 million related to fiscal year 2025, the last BPI will receive in Angola. In 2025, BFA went public, dispersing approximately 30% of capital and allowing BPI to pocket over 100 million euros.
The sale now announced to Grupo Carrinho, an Angolan agri-food giant that had already entered as a reference shareholder in February 2026, will yield BPI more than 388.5 million euros, distributed among a fixed tranche of 345 million, a deferred tranche of approximately 43.5 million and a variable tranche corresponding to half of the 2026 dividend. The deal marks the end of a presence that former CEO Fernando Ulrich described as "a beautiful and highly profitable story."
