Ernesto Luis Tinajero Flores has drawn on his line of credit again with Citi. The Mexican investor has made a provision of 9 million dollars that has caused the US firm to claim new guarantees in the form of shares of Unicaja Bank, where the entrepreneur owns slightly less than 3% of the capital. Last November, the director of the Andalusian entity constituted this line of financing that replaces the one it had with Santander in Liberbank before the merger.
It’s about your favorite operative since he has Spanish shares: pledge them to obtain liquidity banking, that is, put them as collateral for loans. On November 3, 2021, Aivilo Spainthe patrimonial company of Tinajero, signed this type of contract with Citibank in exchange for “a pledge on a securities account in which you will deposit shares of the issuer [Unicaja] of its ownership based on the credit provisions it makes”, according to the communication sent to the CNMV.
On March 17, Tinajero disposed of an additional 9 million dollars and transferred 16.5 million shares of Unicaja Banco to the pledged securities account, that is, around 0.62% of the capital. Said account accumulates 30.5 million titles as collateral for the debt acquired by the Mexican or 1.1% of the capital of the Andalusian bank. In case of non-payment of the aforementioned credit, Citi would keep those shares.
As ‘La Información’ advanced on February 11, the position of the Mexican on the board of directors of Unicaja was in question by the leadership of the entity from Malaga given the need to give entry to the governing body to Boys Clothing (Mayoral), the property of the Domínguez family, which has 8% of the capital compared to 2.9% held by Tinajero. However, the American defended his presence on the council with legal reports until he expires his mandate in 2024.
The operation with shares of the bank is not sitting well as neither did it when the object of the pledge was the Liberbank securities. The Asturian bank suffered from high volatility on the stock market due to this type of movement and those of the hedge fund Oceanwoodwhich became the bank’s largest shareholder before its integration with Unibox.
After the merger, the controversy has not left the sixth bank of the Spanish stock market. Next March 31, Unicaja Banking Foundation plans to carry out the ratification of its four councilors after the flight of independents that the bank has experiencedas reported by this newspaper on Friday.
The Andalusian Foundation controls 30% of the capital, followed by the Dominguez with 8% and Oceanwood with 7.4%. With 6.5% is the Savings Bank Foundation of Asturiaswhile the real estate Thomas Olive it has 5.2%. Tinajero is one of the institutional ones that has fallen below 3% after being diluted in the merger swap.
With this percentage of votes, the Unicaja Foundation seeks support for its four Sunday newspapers: Juan Fraile, María Teresa Sáez, Petra Mateos-Aparicio and Manuel Muela and the re-election of the president Manuel Azuaga. But the focus of attention continues on the chairs of the independents after the resignations of Ana Bolado, Manuel González Cid and Manuel Conthe. The controversy has transcended beyond the entity itself and the supervisors maintain their vigilance over what is happening on the Unicaja board.
The First Vice President of the Government, Nadia Calvinasked on Friday during his visit to the Malaga Film Festival that you have to stick to the letter that the Protectorate of Banking Foundations referred to the Unicaja Foundation in which the position of Braulio Medel, former president of the entity and current head of the foundation, is questioned. Everything stems from the complaints of the Intersindical Credit Union Confederation (CIC) for alleged unfair administration. Calviño recently revealed that both the ECB and the Bank of Spain were “very concerned about the drift in governance” at Unicaja Banco.