Gortázar: “We hope the takeover bid has a positive outcome”
The CEO of the Spanish bank Gonzalo Gortázar believes their offer for BPI's takeover bid will be successful; last year, CaixaBank profited more than one billion euros.
Gonzalo Gortázar, CEO of CaixaBank, is confident in the outcome of BPI‘s takeover bid. “We hope the result of the takeover bid, which ends next week, is successful”, he states, highlighting the confidence the Catalan bank has on the Portuguese institution, namely on the team headed by Fernando Ulrich.
During the press conference in Barcelona, Spain, where CaixaBank’s 2016 results were presented, Gortázar emphasized that BPI “represents a clear opportunity to create value; it will allow us to be the largest Iberian bank“, adding he believes the acquisition will allow them to “create 120 million euros’ synergies in three years”.
CaixaBank, who places BPI as a priority in their strategic plan, ended 2016 with a profit of 1,047 million euros and a 28.6% growth on net results. “CaixaBank surpassed one billion in profit for the first time since 2011”, was stated in the press conference. This was the result of a better financial margin — which had a 3.5% growth in the last quarter of 2016 –, but also from a 1.7% cut in costs; also, impairments decreased 57.5%.
Jordi Gual, chairman of CaixaBank, in the same press conference, stated he wants to “create value” from the bank headed by Ulrich, stating as well that he is confident in BPI‘s growth and profitability potential. “We are almost closing BPI‘s takeover bid and are almost beginning a project we believe will be successful”, stated Jordi Gual, chairman of the bank which offers BPI 1.134 euros per share.
Ratios are decreasing… During the takeover bid
In spite of the 1,047 million euros’ growth, CaixaBank’s capital ratios have slightly deteriorated in the end of 2016: the Common Equity Tier 1 ratio (CET1), “fully loaded”, was 12.4% — in terms of regulation, 13.2% is the CET1 reference percentage. By the end of the third quarter of last year — following the capital increase –, the “fully loaded” ratio was 12.6%. This 20 basis points’ decrease can be justified with “the development of credit risk internal models which lead to an increment in deductions to the capital ratio after the provisions”, CaixaBank stated.
