CGD sold its shareholdings in Spain and South Africa
The Portuguese bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, announced today that they would sell their shares at Mercantile Bank Ltd. (100%) and Banco Caixa Geral, S.A. (99.79%), for €201m and €364m, respectively.
Caixa Geral de Depósitos informed the market this Thursday that it would sell its shares in Spanish Bank Banco Caixa Geral to Abanca Corporacion Bancária for €364 million, and its 100% shareholding position of South African Mercantile Bank to Capitec Bank Limited, for €201 million.
The activity of South African Mercantile Bank and the Spanish Banco Caixa Geral have become too heavy on the Portuguese public bank’s accounts, and alienating these two subsidiaries abroad will make CGD boost its financial positioning and get its capital ratios up by 50 to 100 points.
The transaction with the Spanish will get CGD a capital gain of €141.5m.
The bank has adopted these measures in light of the government’s assistance of €3.9bn from the public accounts earlier this year, as it tries to invert its financial positioning.
