Hedge fund Oceanwood offers 4.4% stake in Spanish bank Unicaja

MADRID (Reuters) - British hedge fund Oceanwood Capital Management is selling up to 117 million shares in Spanish bank Unicaja via accelerated bookbuilding, equal to a 4.4% stake or more than half of its total holding, bookrunner BOFA Securities said on Tuesday.

At Tuesday's closing price the stake on offer was worth around 124 million euros ($136.04 million). Oceanwood holds a 7.4% stake in Unicaja.

In a filing with the Spanish stock market regulator CNMV after the closing bell, BOFA Securities said bookbuilding was starting immediately and may close at short notice, with the pricing to be announced later. The other bookrunner is Citigroup Global Markets.

Books in the placement were covered, according to the bookrunners.

BOFA said Oceanwood reserved the right to sell fewer shares or no shares at all.

Since the fund may no longer have a sufficient stake to justify Unicaja board membership, it also said that the sale, depending on its outcome, would likely mean Oceanwood's representative, David Vaamonde Juanatey, would resign as director.

Unicaja, which is controlled by Unicaja Banking Foundation with a 30% stake, bought smaller lender Liberbank in 2020 to create Spain's fifth-largest bank with around 110 billion euros ($121 billion) in assets.

($1 = 0.9115 euros)

(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; editing by Barbara Lewis)