Portuguese bank, BES, sees growth after rights issue-CEO

LISBON, April 20 (Reuters) - Banco Espirito Santo (BES.LS) is in a position to speed up its growth thanks to a recent rights issue of 1.2 billion euros ($1.59 billion), Chief Executive Ricardo Espirito Santo Salgado said on Monday.

Earlier this month, BES said the rights issue of nearly 667 million new shares had been fully subscribed. It was intended to shore up the bank's capital ratios.

"The rights issue allows us to accelerate our growth," Salgado told Reuters in a brief telephone interview on Monday.

He was speaking after BES said Brazilian bank Bradesco (BBDC4.SA) had sharply raised its stake in the Portuguese bank in the rights issue, increasing its holding to 6.05 percent.

"This reinforcement of Bradesco's stake, a long-term partner, at a time of crisis, confirms confidence in BES, in the Portuguese economy and in BES' strategy of growing abroad," Salgado said.

BES has said that over time it wants to increase the contribution of foreign operations to 50 percent of the bottom line from around 35 percent currently. The bank is eyeing growth in Portuguese-speaking markets such as Brazil and Angola.

"The rights issue is an important element in boosting the bank's growth, within strong capital ratios," the CEO said.

After the rights issue, BES has the largest market capitalization of any Portuguese bank, of about 4.2 billion euros.

The rights issue boosted the bank's core-Tier 1 ratio to 8.3 percent from 6.1 percent at the end of 2008, it said. (Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; writing by Axel Bugge; editing by Carol Bishopric)