“We consider BPI as a strategically important subsidy of CaixaBank and hope it benefits from the support [of CaixaBank capital] should it need it”, S&P said on Monday in a communiqué where it announced the upgrade from BB- to BB+.

This improvement in the rating of BPI comes after the takeover bid that gave control to Spanish bank CaixaBank, which now has 84.5% of the Portuguese bank’s share capital.

The Angolan holding owned by Isabel dos Santos, which had until now been the second largest shareholder (18.5%), walked away as did Portuguese group Violas Ferreira and Banco BIC (which the daughter of Angola’s president Eduardo dos Santos, also controls), both with stakes of over 2%.