José M. Rodríguez Silva
Updated Monday, March 25, 2024-18:09
CaixaBank has reduced its stake in Telefónica to 2.5% after liquidating a financial instrument that protected the financial institution from the fluctuation in the value of the telecommunications operator's share.
The bank has delivered 1% of the shares to partially liquidate the instrument, which covered 1.957% of its participation. The company has informed investors that the operation will not have a material impact on the profit and loss account or the CET1 ratio.
The operation is practically identical to the one undertaken by the entity in September 2022. On that occasion, the entity also delivered 1% of Telefónica's capital to partially liquidate another financial instrument that also covered 1.95% of the capital of the telephone operator. telecommunications.
The operation is part of the strategy of rotating the position of the La Caixa Banking Foundation in Telefónica. While CaixaBank has been progressively reducing its weight in the company, Criteria, the foundation's
holding company
, has been building a position for three years that, after this move, would be greater than that of the bank for the first time in history.
It should be remembered that Isidro Fainé is vice president of the group's Board of Directors at the proposal of the financial entity and aspires to obtain a new mandate at the company's shareholders meeting, which will be held on April 12.
The reduction of CaixaBank's participation has another collateral effect and that is that it reduces the strength of the so-called "Spanish core" in Telefónica, formed by the participations of BBVA and the Catalan bank and which the Government wants to join by taking 10% of the capital of the telecommunications operator through the State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI).