Nationalised bank CatalunyaCaixa leaves losses behind and posts a €532 million profit in 2013

Barcelona (ACN).- The Barcelona-based bank, which was totally nationalised in December 2012 due to its financial problems and received a €9.08 billion bailout, has made profits of €532.2 million in 2013. However, without taking into account extraordinary profits, the Catalan bank obtains €167.8 million of positive margins. In 2012, CatalunyaCaixa posted losses of €11.86 billion. In 2013, the operational costs were reduced by 13.1%, having drastically reduced the number of employees and branches. The bank's capital ratio is now 14.36% and the main capital following Basel III criteria reached 12.3%, which represents liquidity of €15.01 billion. With these figures, the Spanish Government is in a better position to sell CatalunyaCaixa, which forecasts profits also for 2014. This company was the result of merging the banking business of 3 savings banks in 2011: Caixa Catalunya, Caixa Tarragona and Caixa Manresa, which disappeared after a long tradition of social work. The operation was part of Spain's restructuring of the banking sector. CatalunyaCaixa represented by far the largest financial earthquake within the Catalan banking sector, which gravitates around two healthy giants: CaixaBank – mostly owned by La Caixa – and Banc Sabadell.

CatalunyaCaixa ended 2013 with a profit of €532.2 million, taking into account the burden sharing effects, the impact of fiscal assets and the provisions position following top prudence criteria. However, without taking into account extraordinary profits, the Catalan bank obtains €167.8 million of positive margins, according to a press release published by the company on Wednesday.

The 2013 results have been made possible by the exchange of hybrid mechanisms and the labour agreement reached with trade union representatives to implement a mass layoff to reduce staff figures. The mass layoff came into force in October, making 2,150 people redundant. Now, 4,600 people work in CatalunyaCaixa, in a network of 715 branches that covers 91% of the Catalan population.

The Barcelona-based bank's capital ratio reached 14.36% by the end of the year, which represents an improvement of 353 basic points compared to the previous term. The bank's main capital in BIS III (fully loaded) terms reached 12.3%. In addition, the bank posted 15.005 billion of liquidity. With these figures, the bank guarantees that it totally covers its future maturities. In addition, it has reduced its dependency on the European Central Bank to a passive position of €1.5 billion.

In addition, CatalunyaCaixa has also reduced the volume of its real estate assets after it transferred its toxic assets to Spain's public bad bank SAREB. Now, CatalunyaCaixa's real estate assets only represent 2.5% of its total portfolio.

By the end of 2013, the consolidated assets of the Barcelona-based bank reached €63.062 billion, which represents a 14.9% reduction of the assets owned the previous year. In 2013, the bank sold its portfolio of fixed income securities and non-financial corporate shares, as foreseen by its restructuring plan. Finally, CatalunyaCaixa's credit investment reached €29.395 billion.