The Government will take a key step today for the future An operation that could be agreed at the price of one euro, according to different financial sources to elEconomista, since it would allow financial entities to maximize tax credits (right to collect from the Treasury for losses incurred on your investment).
Specifically, the Executive is planning a royal decree that will lay the foundations for Sareb to become a public entity, since the regulations that prevent the State from having more than 50% of the shareholding of the so-called bad bank will be modified.
Government sources stress to elEconomista that this does not mean that today there will be a shareholder change in the company, which was created in 2012 after the financial rescue of Spain to dispose of the real estate assets of the entities that received aid. Thus, a company 54.1% owned by banks and insurers was created, and the remaining 45.9% remained in the hands of the State, through the Frob.
In its day, it was done this way to prevent the payment of real estate and bank loans from having to be accounted for as public debt. The scenario changes when the European Statistical Office decided to incorporate Sareb within the perimeter of the State accounts last March, forcing it to add 35,000 million in public debt in 2020 and more than 10,000 million in deficit.
Will Sareb’s bank leave?
The change in the regulations would be a necessary first step to later be able to release the current private shareholders, which are Santander with 22.2% of the capital, CaixaBank (12.2%), Sabadell (6.6%), Kutxabank (2.5%), among others.
From then on, according to Executive sources, the Government began to entertain the idea that, if the company’s risk was assumed entirely by the State, -such as Santander, CaixaBank and Sabadell- and it became a company with a majority of public capital.
However, the sources consulted indicate that the entities will have to retain part of their shareholding in order to be able to exercise the tax credits against the Treasury -deduct the losses generated by selling a participation that committed millions of euros to them at one euro-.
Thus, the same sources explain that, in fact, the Frob would only need to increase its stake by 5% to take control of Sareb, although the percentage of capital that will ultimately remain in public hands is one of the details that is still being they are finalizing Likewise, they point out that the change in the shareholding of the bad bank could be closed in a few weeks.
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