BCP CEO: Friendly Merger With Banco BPI "Desirable" >BCP.LB

LISBON (Dow Jones)--Banco Comercial Portugues' (BCP.LB) chief executive saidin an interview with television channel SIC late Wednesday that a friendlymerger with smaller rival Banco BPI (BPI.LB) would be a "desirable" scenario.

"The solution made sense in the past, it makes sense now and will also makesense in the future," Paulo Teixeira Pinto said.

He added that he already tried the "friendly" approach with Banco BPI prior tolaunching a hostile takeover last year. BCP's bid for BPI failed after itsecured only 3.9% of its smaller rival's shares, well below the necessary 82.5%plus one share.

"It's not possible for me to work with (BPI Chief Executive) Fernando Ulrich,"Teixeira Pinto said in the interview. "I have the utmost respect for him, but hehas said some unfortunate things about me."

As one of BCP's largest shareholders, with an 8.5% stake, Banco BPI will havea key role at BCP's extraordinary general meeting next Monday, at a time whenBCP is waging a bitter internal power struggle between Teixeira Pinto andChairman Jardim Goncalves.

Shareholders will vote on a set of proposed changes in BCP's charter thatwould have fired the supervisory board that Jardim Goncalves chairs and givemore power to the chief executive.

BPI already said that it will vote in favor of Jardim Goncalves, who marketobservers regard as the most likely to come out of the EGM as a winner.

A merger between BCP and BPI would create Iberia's third-largest bank bymarket capitalization, after Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBV)and Banco Santander SA (STD).

Company website: http://www.millenniumbcp.pt

-By Filipa Cunha, Dow Jones Newswires; +351-21-3191863; filipa.cunha@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires 08-01-07 1859ET Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.