Four international to underwrite 's

 It of America-Merrill Lynch, , JP Morgan and UBS have been chosen to underwrite the company's public offering, alongside Bankia itself.  Lazard will act as the advisor for the operation, and Deloitte will serve as the auditor.  Uría Menéndez and Davis Polk & Wardwell have been as Bankia's Spanish and international legal advisors, respectively, and Linklaters will represent the four underwriters.  This represents one of the largest public offerings in the last four years.

11-03- 2011. Bankia has selected -Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and UBS to coordinate its initial public offering, alongside Bankia itself. Together with Lazard, the advising bank for the operation, these banks will be tasked with devising the structure of Bankia's public offering on the Spanish securities market.

The company has also confirmed the appointment of Uría Menéndez and Davis Polk & Wardwell as the legal advisors for the operation. The pair will be responsible for Spanish and international law respectively. Deloitte has been chosen to audit the process.

Furthermore, Linklaters will provide legal advice to the placing banks.

Bankia's public offering will be one of the most significant to have taken place in this last four years and takes it one step forward in the process for the bank to become a publicly traded company, as decided by its Board of Directors on 17 February.

The designation of the underwriters, as well as the advisory bank, the legal advisors and the auditor, will now be followed by a period of administrative and legal formalities.

During the process for becoming a publicly traded company, Bankia will also embark on a road show to attract institutional investors in Europe, the USA and Asia, where it will be revealing the major dimensions of the operation and seek to fulfil one of the main goals of the public offering, i.e. achieving as broad and diversified shareholder base as possible.

As well as the institutional tranche, part of the IPO will also be directed to retail investors, although the proportions of each tranche are still to be determined.

Bankia's initial public offering will also help to strengthen its solvency, broaden its shareholder base and provide the Group's current and future shareholders with market liquidity.

2 Bankia is the leading financial institution in in terms of domestic turnover, at 485,925 million euros, and has assets of some 328,000 million euros. The bank was formed through the integration of Caja , Bancaja, La Caja de Canarias, Caja de Ávila, Caixa Laietana, Caja Segovia and Caja Rioja, and boasts a market share of more than 10% in Spain.