Barclays looks to bid for Spanish cajas

Barclays looks to bid for Spanish cajas
16 October 2011 @ 14:29

Barclays is attempting to bolster its position in Spain’s fragmented high street banking market by eyeing a number of the country’s cajas.

The British bank is understood to be looking at four of the cajas, which are small savings banks unique to the country.

It is known that Barclays is one of eight domestic and international banks to have made a first-round bid for Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo (CAM), which has €71bn (£62bn) in assets.

But it is also believed to be in the very early stages of looking at a further three, including Novacaixagalicia, each of which was taken into the control of the Bank of Spain last month.

Were Barclays to be successful in its bid for CAM, it would take its market share in Spain from less than 2pc to approximately 4.5pc to 5pc.

However, any deal would be predicated on CAM’s troubled balance sheet, a victim of Spain’s property crisis, being cleaned up by the Bank of Spain.

If Barclays cannot gain traction in the Spanish market through the current auction process, it remains possible it will choose to exit the country altogether.

A Barclays spokesman declined to comment.

Source: The Telegraph

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Spanish Business News

Barclays is attempting to bolster its position in Spain’s fragmented high street banking market by eyeing a number of the country’s cajas.