Spain's Bankia chief hopes for privatisation by 2015

The head of Spain's bailed-out lender Bankia, which was nationalised last year as it sank under a pile of bad loans, said Tuesday he hopes the bank will start to be privatised by 2015. Born in 2010 from the merger of seven troubled savings banks, Bankia soon became a symbol of Spain's banking crisis and the huge loans that turned sour after a 2008 property crash. "I would like to see real value in Bankia from 2014, 2015 and for the privatisation process to begin," Bankia chairman Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri said at a conference organised by Spain's Europa Press news agency. In May 2012, the BFA-Bankia group said it needed 19 billion euros ($25 billion) to shore up its books, prompting Spain to seek a loan for the entire industry from Brussels. Bankia has absorbed 18 billion euros of a total 41 billion euros in banking rescue loans that Brussels has extended to fix the Spanish financial industry. Goirigolzarri conceded that "given the results" it was a mistake for Bankia to list on the Madrid stock exchange in mid-2011. Its shares have slumped more than 90 percent from the initial public offer price of 3.75 euros each. Bankia reported a loss of 19.1 billion euros in 2012 but said it hoped to start turning a profit in 2013, targeting a net profit of 1.2 billion euros in 2015.