La Caixa, the public
sector Spanish lender, is to change its name to CaixaBank, shore up
its capital base and shed its toxic assets to a “bad bank”, ahead
of a stock market listing.
La Caixa’s restructuring
– it is targeting to complete its reorganisation by August –
is expected to create the 10th largest lender in the
eurozone by market cap.
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La Caixa will issue
€1.5bn ($2.04bn) in convertible bonds and raise its Tier 1 capital
ratio to 10.9%.
It currently has a
market share of around 10% of Spanish loans and
deposits.
CaixaBank will have a
branch network of 5,409 outlets, 8,181 ATMs, 10.5m customers and
over 28,000 employees.
In the 12 months to 31
December, la Caixa posted a net profit of €1.51bn, down 11.9% from
the prior year.
Net interest income fell
by almost 20% to €3.15bn; on a more positive note, fees and
commission increased by 8% to €1.41bn.
La Caixa’s
non-performing loans ratio stood at 3.71%, 29 basis points up on
the year-ago period.
Total assets increased
5.1% to €285.7bn; lending increased by 6.5% to €189.5bn while total
deposits were up 4.2% to €247.9bn.
