Bankia : BFA sells 7% of Bankia’s capital for 818 million euros

• Bankia has repaid 2.656 billion euros in state aid through equity placements and dividend pay-outs
• Additionally, 5,000 million euros have been returned through the refund of preferred securities and retail IPO shares, due to the value generated by the bank in recent years.
• For Bankia's Chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, 'the transaction is another step towards the bank's privatisation'

BFA Tenedora de Acciones, S.A.U. ('BFA') has sold a 7% of its stake in Bankia for a total of 818.3 million euros, which rises to 2,656 million euros the amount of state aid returned by Bankia.

A total of 201,553,250 Bankia shares have been sold through an accelerated bookbuild among qualified investors. The sale price has been 4.06 euros per share, representing a 2.71% discount on the last closing price.

Investors have requested shares totalling 1,900 million euros, which represents an oversubscription of 2.3x the amount offered.

For Bankia's Chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, 'the transaction is another step towards the bank's privatisation, which is all that remains to normalise the project and ensure its professionalization in the future'.

'The sell-off also allows us to continue returning the state aid,' adds Goirigolzarri, who highlights that 2,656 million euros have now been returned through equity placements and dividend pay-outs.

Additionally, 5,000 million euros have been returned through the refund of preferred securities and retail IPO shares, due to the value generated by the bank in recent years.

This new placement takes Bankia's free float to 39.37%, 'allowing increased liquidity of the share and making it more attractive to large institutional investors', Goirigolzarri explains.

As is normal practice in this type of transactions, BFA has assumed a 60-day lock-up period in relation to the shares it still holds.

The sell-off has been executed in line with market practice for this type of transaction, and is comparable to the process followed in other European countries to divest state-owned financial entities.

The placement was completed with the technical support and advice of independent experts with experience in this type of transactions. Nomura has acted as financial advisor to the FROB, Rothschild as advisor to BFA, and Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and UBS Limited as placement agents.

Following the transaction, BFA - 100% owned by the FROB - holds a 60.63% stake in Bankia. On a consolidated basis, this sell-off will have a positive impact on BFA's CET1 Fully Loaded ratio of 75 basis points vs September 2017.

BFA had completed another placement in February 2014, when it sold 7.5% of Bankia's capital for 1,304 million euros. In the three following years, added to this repayment of state aid, three dividends have been paid in the amount of 128 million euros, 195 million euros and 211 million euros, respectively.