In a filing with the Spanish stock market regulator, Ibercaja was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying, "The boards of Ibercaja Banco and Banco Grupo Caja 3 have reached an agreement in principle on the future integration of the two entities through the acquisition of Banco Grupo Caja 3 by Ibercaja Banco."
The acquisition will take shape only after receiving approval for Caja 3’s restructuring plans and the required capital aid.
The newly floated entity will manage 1,622 offices and a capital ratio of 10.22%, according to the lenders.
Caja 3, which was established with the merger of three banks, requires raising €779m ($1bn) of fresh capital, as per an independent audit release by Oliver Wyman.
Earlier, Ibercaja, Liberbank and Caja 3 were close to a proposed merger, but the plan was abandoned after an audit result underlined that the group had a collective deficit gap of €2.1bn.
