1.6 billion euros would to save Banco Popular de España

Mexican businessman Antonio del Valle and Chilean tycoon Andrónico Luksic were willing to invest 1.6 billion euros in Banco Popular during spring 2017, days before the Spanish entity, prompted by the leakage of deposits, was resolved by the Board Single European Resolution (JUR) for its “near bankruptcy” situation.

Both investors sought to close the support of several majority shareholders such as Allianz, which by then had 3.5% of Popular’s capital, and Crédit Mutuel, with 4%, companies that had already informed them of their interest in participating.

Once that first purchase was completed, Luksic and Del Valle studied other alternatives to strengthen a bank that had internal auditors, assessing the specific capital levels that were required. The objective was to agree on the creation of a large investment bank where they came to refine the financing formula of the operation. However, two days later, the FROB resolved the Popular at the request of the JUR, which resulted in the sale of the entity to Santander at the balance price and the zero amortization of its securities.

According to legal sources, last Tuesday Del Valle appeared before Judge José Luis Calama to offer his version of how the months prior to the bank’s fall were he indicated what he considered to have been the mismanagement of the European authorities.

The Ministries of Justice and Economy, the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and the FROB, have recently agreed to defend national interests against complaints filed by Del Valle, which together with other shareholders claim 470 million in an international arbitration.

K.Villarroel

Source: bancaynegocios