CaixaBank and Bankia, which are in top-10 among the largest banks in Spain, continue to negotiate their merger, which would have created the country’s largest financial and credit institution. All the details of this «deal of the century» are unknown yet, but the heads of these organizations have decided that the headquarters of the new bank will be located in Valencia – the same place where the head offices of each of them are based now. It is also expected that the head of the bank, the name of which is not yet public, will be Jose Ignacio Gorigosarri – currently the President of Bankia.
According to information from various sources, negotiations on the merger started in June, and the process was forced during the second half of August − after the Bank of Spain has shown interest in the deal. In addition, CaixaBank and Bankia can count on the support of the Spanish government, which in turn drew up a draft budget for next year.
In spite the fact that no agreements, under the official version, have yet been reached on a date, last Friday, by the Spanish Stock Exchange opening, the share prices of both banks increased sharply by 27% for Bankia, and by 9.4% for CaixaBank.
