Badia)advocats advises personal clients and companies that have lost out in the resolution of BANCO POPULAR
Banco Popular shareholders and convertible bondholders were caught out by the Single Resolution Board’s decision on 6 June 2017 to resolve the Bank and sell it to Banco Santander for the symbolic price of €1. They have seen their investment turned to zero.
The only way to recover this investment is to file a legal claim. However, each case calls for a personalised solution as a class action is not recommended.
Our clients include shareholders prior to 2016, shareholders who subscribed the capital increase in 2016 and others who bought their shares on the secondary market after the last increase. There are also holders of convertible bonds which were compulsorily turned into shares on 7 June and their value reduced to zero.
Some situations are more pressing and call for immediate action. They include cases where the client took out a loan to buy the shares which they still have to repay or have a credit facility they used to subscribe to the share issue.
The others can wait for events to unfold and the publication of the regulatory authorities’ internal documents which will give greater support to the legal action we will take. In the meantime we are processing prior out-of-court claims.
Banco Santander has offered some shareholders the option of partially recovering their loss by subscribing to “loyalty bonds”, although to do this they will have to waive legal action. We are examining these offers and looking for personalised solutions.
