Criteria to buy Inbursa and Bank of East Asia from CaixaBank
(4 December 2015 – Spain) Barcelona based CaixaBank is selling its stakes in Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB and Bank of East Asia Ltd. to its parent company Criteria Caixa.
CaixaBank owns about 9 percent of Inbursa as well as a 17 percent stake in Bank of East Asia, and is the second-largest holder in both businesses.
Criteria will pay a combined €2.65 billion (A$3.9 billion) for the stakes, Caixabank said in a statement. The payout will be a combination of €642 million in cash, with the remainder by transferring CaixaBank shares, valued at around €2 billion.
The joint sale will reduce the Spanish bank’s capital consumption from minority stakes to 8.1 percent, below the 10 percent target it had set for the end of 2016.
Following a near collapse, and €41 billion bailout from the European Union, the Spanish banking sector is consolidating to relieve pressure from heavy competition and low interest rates.
Among eight other acquisitions in the last two years, CaixaBank agreed to buy Barclays’ banking operations in Spain for about €800 million in cash last year.
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