Unicaja becomes a bank and will head a banking 'league'

MÁLAGA -- At an Extraordinary General Meeting, shareholders ratified the transformation: Unicaja became a Banking Foundation on October 30, with assets of €2,500 million, thus putting an end to 130 years of activity as a building society (USA: savings & loan). As soon as it is registered with the Stock Exchange authorities and the paperwork is completed, and the recent acquisition of Banco Ceiss is properly consolidated, it will be split in two and be offered on the Madrid Stock Exchange (La Bolsa): one part is the Fundación Bancaria, which in turn will own 90.8% of Unicaja Banco, which will control the daily banking business as well as its 'social' arm. When all this is done, the bank will become one of largest banks in Spain. The banking business in Spain will consist of two 'leagues',

according to most of the specialised media.

The first league consists of the heavyweights: Santander, BBVA, Caixabank, Sabadell -- nobody knows what will be happening with Bankia, which is a story on its own. Most of these are expected to grow by becoming international, following in the wake of Santander.

After its absorption of Banco Ceiss, Unicaja Banco aspires to be the leader of the second league, the national market business. However, it does need to expand in order to cover the whole of the country. Until now, it has been operating almost exclusively in Andalucía. The banking fraternity believes that in order to achieve this it must buy up, or at least conjoin, some of the smaller entities. There are rumours of a fusion with Ibercaja, seen as the most logical way to climb the ladder, similar to Unicaja even to the point of not having needed help from public money and a large presence in Aragón and the North of Spain. This has long been muted but Unicaja has never acknowledged it.

Another possible target for Unicaja Banco is Cajasur, about which its previous buyer, BBK, has never been fully satisfied. Other options include Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN), which would cover the Levante area and the Balearics.

In any case, Unicaja has stated that it intends to become a national bank with Andalusian capital.