caixabank

The Catalan company, which is the main bank operating in the Spanish market, will sell half of its shares in the Mexican GFI, the financial group owned by the billionaire Carlos Slim. Caixabank currently controls 20% of the GFI shares. The Catalan bank has confirmed it will sell 3.7% of GF Inbursa to Inmobiliaria Carso, which is also owned by the Slim family, for €387 million, corresponding to 250 million shares. With this operation, Caixabank will earn a capital gain of €33 million. Besides, the Catalan bank aims to sell another 6.4% of GIF shares to institutional and retail investors from Mexico and international markets. After completing both sales, Caixabank will control between 9% and 9.9% of GFI.

In a situation of difficult access to credit by Catalan and Spanish companies, Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce and the main Spanish bank – which is based in the Catalan capital – have agreed to open a new credit line for the 25,000 private companies (small, medium-sized and large) and independent workers affiliated to the Chamber’s ‘Club Cambra’. In January 2012 they created the first credit fund with €2 billion. Now, a total of €3 billion will be available, of which €1 billion will be for internationalisation projects. CaixaBank’s President, Isidre Fainé, and the President of the Chamber, Miquel Valls, signed the new agreement on Wednesday.

With the operation, the Barcelona-based bank, has more than 6,000 branches throughout Spain for the first time. CaixaBank, which tops the Spanish retail banking market, acquired Banca Cívica in August, which was the merger of five savings banks: Caja Navarra, Cajasol, Caja Guadalajara, Caja Canarias and Caja Burgos. From now on, all the branches, ATMs, IT systems, accounts and other financial products from all the five previous savings banks will be integrated into CaixaBank’s business. CaixaBank has adapted 1,170 ATMs from Banca Cívica, reaching a total number of 10,000 ATMs distributed throughout Spain.

The fashion label Desigual based in Barcelona has obtained a €200 million line of credit from different banks. This financial support will be used to finance international expansion as well as plans for a new logistical centre in Vilamoura (Barcelona). Leading this investment is the Catalan bank CaixaBank, mostly owned by La Caixa. Under the slogan “Desigual – It’s not the same” the label wants to focus on continual improvements, innovation, engagement, tolerance, positivism and fun. Within this slogan now Desigual is trying to attain a more international status, enlarging its current team of 2,900 people from 72 different nationalities.

The Barcelona-based bank, CaixaBank, which leads the Spanish retail banking market, is planning to lay off 3,000 workers in order “to adapt to the current context” and “improve the efficiency” of its resources. According to the Catalan financial company, the reform is “necessary” after having taken over Banca Cívica’s network and as they absorbing Banc de València’s too. CaixaBank has engaged in formal talks with the unions, which could be on-going until late April. The objective is to negotiate the exact measures to adjust the staff numbers to the business volume.

CaixaForum Girona, the social and cultural centre of “La Caixa” savings bank in the Catalan city of Girona played host to 131,158 visitors in its second year of existence. Among the different activities that took place during last year, the exhibitions registered the biggest affluence of visitors, followed by educational activities, concerts, family activities, conferences and social projects. The exhibitions dedicated to Monet, Gauguin, Rusiñol and Sunyer, the maternity photographs of Bru Rovira and the Louvre’s Egyptian collection were the most popular activities.

The CaixaBank President, Isidre Fainé, is optimistic about 2013, which “will be better than the year left behind”. The attributable net profits of CaixaBank, Spain’s main bank, decreased by 78.2% in 2012 compared to the previous year, as the Catalan financial entity focused on fully restructuring its business and purchasing other financial entities in order to enlarge its customer base and reach 13 million clients. The Catalan bank’s customer funds increased by 19.6%, up to €288.57 billion and its loans portfolio grew by 20.1%, reaching €223.45 billion. Furthermore, CaixaBank allocated €10.3 billion for provisioning charges and write-downs. The Barcelona-based financial entity had an income of €6.74 billion and a net operating income of €3.17 billion. In addition, CaixaBank will keep its €500 million budget for its social work foundation.

The operation has rocketed CaixaBank shares in the Spanish stock exchange market, which increased by 11.75% in just one day. The Catalan CaixaBank, which is the largest bank in Spain, successfully issued €1 billion in 3-year senior bonds. The operation has attracted more than 300 orders from institutional investors, representing around €5 billion, which has allowed the Barcelona-based bank to sell its bonds at a better price thanks to the significant oversubscription. 80% of the bonds issued were placed among international investors, confirming the positive recognition CaixaBank has in international financial markets. It was the first time their senior bonds have been issued on the international markets since 2010.

The Catalan theme park PortAventura, located on the Costa Daurada, between Tarragona and Salou, will be completely controlled by Investindustrial, a fund run by the Bonomi family. Portaventura is the only profitable theme park in Spain and one of only a few in Europe. Investindustrial is buying the remaining 50% of the park for €105 million. Furthermore, they have announced a future investment of €80 million to foster the park’s international expansion. PortAventura is located next to the land where the €6 billion mega-resort Barcelona World will be built. The Italian group has a consolidated trajectory of investing large amounts of capital in businesses from a wide range of sectors to ensure growth.

However, CatalunyaBanc would need a maximum of €10.83 billion in the most stressed scenario. According to the independent audit by Oliver Wyman, with KPGM, Deloitte, PwC and Ernst & Young, the Spanish banking system would need a maximum of €53.75 billion in the worst case scenario. 4 banking groups would concentrate 86% of these additional funds. In total, 7 banking groups would need additional funds, while 7 groups would be strong enough, with their own resources, to resist a hypothetical scenario with a 6.5% recession between 2012 and 2014, 27% unemployment, a 85% drop in land prices and a 55% decrease in housing prices.

The Catalan bank, which leads the Spanish market, increases its share in the Portuguese Investment Bank by 7 percentage points increasing its stake from 39.5% to 46.22%. CaixaBank purchased just over 251 million shares in the capital increase offered by the Portuguese financial entity, at a cost of €125 million. Caixabank had already said it would extend its share in the BPI.

The British financial news publication has also awarded the Spanish Santander the ‘Best Bank in the World 2012’. Euromoney emphasised CaixaBank’s fiancial solvency and its strong growth over the previous years.

Independent auditors state that in the worst possible scenario the Spanish banking system would need up to €62 billion. The Eurozone agreed to put at Spain’s disposal up to €100 billion if needed. In the most likely scenario, the Spanish banking system would require between €16 billion and €25.6 billion. Within the most stressed case, Spain’s three main banks would have enough resources of their own to face difficulties and would not need any additional funding. They are the Barcelona-based CaixaBank and the two international giants BBVA and Banco Santander.

Spain’s largest bank presented its results for 2012’s first quarter. Barcelona-based CaixaBank has reduced its profits by 84% compared to the same period last year in order to immediately fulfil all the new financial requirements decreed by the Spanish Government in February. The Catalan bank has allocated €2.44 billion in provisions in the last quarter. CaixaBank’s CEO explained they wanted to concentrate their efforts in this first quarter. Besides, the bank’s President explained that despite Repsol-YPF’s episode in Argentina, they will carry on with their expansion plan in the Americas, with the support of Carlos Slim, opening new branches in Chile, Colombia and the United States.

Banca Cívica has accepted the offer from the Catalan bank to pay €1.97 per share. With this operation, CaixaBank, the private bank created last year by the Catalan savings bank ‘La Caixa’, becomes Spain’s largest financial entity, ahead of BBVA and Banco Santander. After buying Banca Cívica, CaixaBank will have more than €342.6 billion in assets in the Spanish market. Banca Cívica was the merger of four savings banks: Caja Navarra, Caja Canarias, Caja de Burgos and Cajasol.