Three Spanish banks have placed bids on Spanish lending giant Catalunya Banc. The nationalized lender is being sold and the non-binding bids were submitted by Santander, Sabadell and Popular. Another noted bank, BBVA intended to bid but there was no confirmation as to its participation, according to three sources familiar with the sale.
All four banks declined to give a comment on the said auction.
Catalunya Bank had received European bailout funds amounting to Eur9 billion in 2012 in order to rebuild its capital base after taking a beating from the Spanish housing crash back in 2008. Much of the bank's finances have been restored after transfer of bad real estate deals were made to a government supported banking institution.
The Catalonia based institution is second behind leader Caixabank in terms of market share in the region that accounts for nearly twenty percent of the ailing Spanish economy. This alone makes the recovering back very attractive to bidders and other investors.
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