Creation of Sareb now complete through receipt of assets from Group 2
Sareb today received the real estate and financial assets contributed by the four Group 2 banks (BMN, Liberbank, Caja3 and CEISS), in accordance with the restructuring plans approved by the European Commission on 28 November 2012. The contributing banks have transferred real estate assets and loans with a total value of €14.09bn, which as of today are held by Sareb.
The company has received assets amounting to €5.82bn from BMN, €2.92bn from Liberbank, €2.21bn from Caja3 and €3.14bn from CEISS. This means that, together with the assets contributed by the Group 1 banks on 31 December 2012, the company now has a total of €50.78bn in real estate and financial assets.
In parallel, over this week Sareb has completed its own funds structure, amounting to €4.8bn and comprising 25% share capital and 75% subordinated debt.
A total of 28 investors (27 Spanish and foreign private companies and institutions, and the Spanish Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, or FROB) have provided these resources. Overall, 55% of its capital is held by Sareb’s private shareholders, while the government-held stake is 45%, thus enabling Sareb to meet its target of having a majority of private shareholders.
The private investors are 14 Spanish banks (Santander, Caixabank, Banco Sabadell, Banco Popular, Kutxabank, Ibercaja, Bankinter, Unicaja, Cajamar, Caja Laboral, Banca March, Cecabank, Banco Cooperativo Español and Banco Caminos), two foreign banks (Deutsche Bank and Barclays Bank), 10 insurance companies including four foreign insurers (Mapfre, Mutua Madrileña, Catalana Occidente, Axa, Generali, Zurich, Reale, Pelayo, Asisa and Santa Lucía), and Iberdrola.
This week, Sareb undertook a second issue of government-backed fixed-income securities in exchange for the real estate assets and financial assets from the Group 2 banks. BMN, which subscribed 41.3% of the issue, has the largest share of this second tranche of senior debt, followed by CEISS and Liberbank, with 22.2% and 20.7%, respectively, while Caja3’s share amounts to 15.7%.
The milestone of the asset transfer by the four Group 2 banks is in line with the planned schedule for the start-up and launch of Sareb. In the last two and a half months, the company has completed its shareholder and investor structure and has absorbed, in two stages, the assets of eight banking groups, following the transfer of assets by Group 1 banks (BFA-Bankia, Catalunya Banc, Novagalicia Banco, Banco Gallego and Banco de Valencia) on 31 December 2012. Sareb has already begun to bring the assets to market, a task it must conclude within a set timelines of 15 years and in which it aims to obtain the highest returns for its shareholders.
Sareb has carried out three capital increases since it was incorporated. On 13 December 2012, the company undertook its first capital increase to include the first private institutions among its shareholders, with Santander, Caixabank, Banco Popular, Banco Sabadell and Kutxabank joining the FROB.
On 17 December 2012, 14 new investors joined the project, namely Ibercaja, Bankinter, Unicaja, Cajamar, Caja Laboral, Banca March, Cecabank, Banco Cooperativo Español, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank, Mapfre, Mutua Madrileña, Catalana Occidente and Axa, which were in turn joined on 28 December by Asisa and Pelayo when they purchased the company’s subordinated debt. The list of investors grew for the third time on 13 February 2013, with the addition of Iberdrola, Banco Caminos, Generali, Reale, Zurich and Santa Lucía.