La caixa to become listed bank

Spain’s La Caixa took a major step forward in the wider overhaul of the country’s savings bank sector on Thursday, setting out plans to boost its capital and become a listed bank.

Spain’s regional savings banks — known as cajas — are under pressure from the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to find more cash from investors as he seeks to stamp out fears of an Irish-style EU-backed bailout.

La Caixa said it would create a new listed bank, CaixaBank, in which it will have 81.1 percent through the injection of the main savings bank into the already listed industrial holding company Criteria. After the sale of 1.5 billion euros of convertible bonds, CaixaBank will have a core capital adequacy ratio of 10.9 percent of assets, La Caixa said.

This would be well above the 8 percent level demanded of all the cajas by Zapatero. They have until September to do this or risk part nationalisation by the Socialist government.

Source: Kyero