Caixabank placed 10% of their capital to be strengthened before a takeover bid by BPI – Reuters Spain

By Tomás Cobos and Sergio Goncalves

MADRID (Reuters) – Caixabank sold the Thursday, in an accelerated placement with institutional investors 9.9 per cent of its own shares to strengthen their capital before the take-over bid that is going to launch soon by the Portuguese bank BPI.

With the sale of the 585 million shares (which was held as treasury stock) Caixabank captured is 1,322 million euros, at a price per share 2.26 euros, representing a discount of 3,67 percent, as compared to the last marked price Thursday 2,346 euros.

The action was a drop in the bag of more than 3 percent on Thursday to diffuse into the market information than anticipated by the operation, which led to the supervisor’s stock to suspend the procurement shortly before the closing.

With the operation, which was secured by the banks underwriters, Caixabank seeking to preserve their capital buffers at levels in line with its objectives, in an environment of high demands of regulators to address future contingencies.

Caixabank said that without this sale of shares ratio of capital 1 ordinary (CET1) “fully loaded”, an important measure of solvency in the sector, would be after the take-over bid for BPI below 11 percent, compared to the group’s objective to keep it between 11 and 12 percent.

The bank said that after the placement, the capital CET1 “fully loaded” of the group would be in June 2016 in 11.4-14.2 percent in the event that after the tender offer reaches 51 per cent of the capital of BIS, compared to almost 46 per cent that it currently handles.

if it increases participation to 70 percent, the CET1 would be 11.2-14.0 per cent, and if it gets to 100 percent, the principal would be 10.8-13.6 percent.

Assuming that you accept the offer all the shareholders remaining in BIS, the payment for Shares would be around eur 900 million, according to estimates from Thomson Reuters. Continued…