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It Is Odds-On Catalunya Banc Will Be Sold in the First Round
17/07/2014 – Expansion
The binding offers for Catalunya Banc are due on Friday. The Frob, Spain´s Fund for Orderly Banking Restructuring, truly hopes there will be no need of organizing the second round of the auction because one of the sure-bet banks (Santander, CaixaBank or Societe Generale) will submit the highest bid (at least by €200 million better than the other and by 50% higher than the second) and take the nationalized entity directly.
Santander could be motivated to buy Catalunya Banc by the promise of additional 12% market share in Catalonia, allowing it to outrun Sabadell and BBVA, although still staying behind CaixaBank.
For the last entity, the acquisition would mean grabbing a staggering 44% market share in the region where it already reigns as the number one.
The Fund is anxious, expecting that the bidding will bring equity instead of the plead of public assitance – the main reason why the two previous auctions ended up in fiasco. It also hopes the amount would compensate the loss suffered at the sale of the troublesome mortgages of Catalunya Banc to Blackstone, announced this very morning.
Original article: Expansión (by S. Arancibia)
Translation: AURA REE