The Oceanwood activist fund, which has been the great support of Manuel Menéndez on the Unicaja Board of Directors, prepare to leave the bank before the imminent replacement of the Asturian banker as CEO of the entity. Oceanwood has hired Bank of America and Citi to pilot the sale of a 4.4% stake in the merged bank, which will leave the activist fund with a meager 3% of Unicaja’s capital, leading to its removal from the Board and he full control of the Malaga bloc on the new power scheme of the combined bank.
What Oceanwood proposes is an express exit, that is, an accelerated placement that will begin imminently, as the fund has informed the market in a relevant event to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). In this document, the activist fund assumes that the divestment will lead to the resignation of its representative on the Board, the proprietary David Vaamonde.
With the future departure of Vaamonde, the Malaga front reinforces its full control over the bank’s governing body and leaves the Asturian front with Cajastur, the foundation that controlled Liberbank from which Menéndez came, as the only champion, with a 6,6% of the capital. In practice, the new twist in the combined entity means completely removing any internal obstacles to the interests of Malaga.
The actual the state in which on the Board of the entity delimits as per the investor profile that could be interested in the package of shares to which the activist fund has hung the ‘for sale’ sign. And it is that the alignment between a large part of the bank’s reference shareholders limits the margin of influence of any new shareholder.
Today Málaga controls the capital and the Council, as the numbers show. The Unicaja Foundation, the main shareholder and main champion of the interests of Malaga, brings together 30.2% of the capital. Aligned with the first is the textile group Mayoral, which adds 8.5% of the capital through the holding company Indumenta Pueri. On the other side, the Asturian block that formed the Cajastur Foundation and Oceanwood will barely add 9.6% of the capital.