Ibercaja Banco on Track to be Spain’s First IPO of 2022

Ibercaja Banco is tracking to be Spain’s first initial public offering (IPO) of 2022 and the first bank public listing since 2017 as Ibercaja’s largest shareholder Fundación Ibercaja, which owns 88.04% of the shares, plans to sell roughly 40% of its holdings, Reuters reported on Thursday (Jan. 20).

The IPO comes as part of the bank’s legal mandates following a 2012 financial crisis bailout. Ibercaja previously said it was planning to float its shares but didn’t mention a time frame. The last public listing by a bank in Spain was Unicaja in 2017.

Rothschild is the IPO adviser for Ibercaja Banco, and Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are the global bookrunners.

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“The plan is to be listed at some point during February, potentially around mid-February,” the source told Reuters. Approval for the prospectus by the market supervisor is anticipated within days.

Spanish regulators gave Ibercaja and other former savings banks until the end of 2022 to either file for a public offering or raise funds to minimize outside stakes held. Ibercaja indicated that it has assets totaling 58 billion euros ($65.7 billion), and shares offered would be from the estimated 88% of existing shares held by the Ibercaja Foundation.

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Ibercaja Foundation’s stake would decline to 46.09% following the IPO, “assuming that an overallotment option of 10% is exercised,” according to Reuters.

The Ibercaja Foundation is planning to earmark a portion of the monies from the offer to a reserve fund set aside in case the bank needs recapitalization, as per the terms established by the Banking Foundations Law.

Ibercaja said that becoming a publicly listed firm “will speed up the ongoing transformation in the commercial, operational and financial areas that it has already been undergoing by reducing the risk level of its balance sheet, improving its solvency, its transformation process and the revitalization of its commercial dynamism,” according to tellerreport.com.