CaixaBank, Spain's third largest bank, sold a 3.7 per cent stake in Mexican lender Grupo Financiero Inbursa to billionaire Carlos Slim's Inmobiliaria Carso.

CaixaBank sold the stake for €387 million and booked a gain of €33 million, the company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

The Barcelona-based lender plans to sell another 6.4 per cent of Inbursa to institutional investors, cutting its stake to as little as 9 per cent.

Spanish banks are raising capital to bolster their balance sheets before the European Central Bank, set to take over supervision of the continent’s biggest lenders next year, runs an analysis of their holdings.

Caixabank rose 0.8 per cent to €2.72 in Madrid trading yesterday, bringing the bank’s gain this year to 3 per cent. – (Bloomberg)