Spain: Unicaja wavers between merger and IPO

The Andalusian bank Unicaja has said it intends to go ahead with plans to go public this summer, in an operation that will allow it to repay the public subsidies it received as Caja España-Duero, although it has not ruled out entering into a corporate merger instead.

Unicaja’s plan is to go public in the first half of this year, if market conditions are favorable, although the entity is known to have entered into talks with both Santander and Sabadell to explore a possible corporate deal as an alternative.

Unicaja’s main interest in going public is to reduce the participation of its main shareholder – the Unicaja Foundation owns 86.0% capital shares – and comply with regulatory requirements. The Caja Law establishes that bank foundations should reduce their participation in controlled banks (old cajas) to below 50.0%.

Full Content: El Boletín

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