The friendly purchase offer from the Spanish bank BBVA for its rival Sabadell becomes hostile. And political since the Spanish government is involved. This Thursday, three days after the rejection of its friendly merger offer, BBVA, the second Spanish bank in terms of market capitalization (60 billion euros) and number of customers (74.1 million) announced that it was launching a public offer of hostile purchase (takeover bid), on the fourth largest bank in Spain (9.8 billion capitalization, 20 million customers). Almost four years after a first failed merger attempt, the operation, if successful, would give birth to a European banking giant capable of competing with Santander, the leading Spanish bank with 72 billion euros in capitalization and 166 million customers, but also with other European giants, such as HSBC or BNP Paribas.
Sabadell valued at 11.5 billion euros
This takeover bid is therefore carried out under the same conditions as the marriage proposal refused by the board of directors of Sabadell, namely an exchange of one new BBVA share for 4.83 Sabadell shares, which values the latter at nearly 11 .5 billion euros. Judgedxtraordinarily attractive, likely to create a larger-scale entity » by the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, the offer was on the contrary judged insufficient by the management body of Sabadell, which considers that such a marriage would be contrary to its interests but also to those of “ its shareholders » which would only have 16% of the capital of the new entity, of its “ clients » and its “ employees “.
The offer is therefore in the hands of the Sabadell shareholders themselves. The bank from Catalonia has no controlling shareholder but a multitude of shareholders not exceeding 4% of the capital, including large investment funds. In any case, the takeover bid was favorably received on the Madrid Stock Exchange for Sabadell, whose shares gained 3.47% at 09:50 GMT. BBVA stock, on the other hand, lost 5.95%.
The government is against the operation
But not by the Spanish left-wing government which immediately got involved in the matter. The number three in the executive, Yolanda Diaz, Minister of Labor and leader of the far-left platform Sumar, stepped up against this offer deemed “ contrary to the interests » of Spain because it “ would destroy many jobs ”, would reinforce “ oligopoly » banking and would amount to “ kill Sabadell for the sole benefit of foreign investment funds that own BBVA “. For his part, Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo warned that the government would have “ the final word when it comes to authorizing the operation » that he « rejects both in substance and in form », without concretely detailing the executive’s room for maneuver to block the operation.
Employee unions are concerned about the consequences on employment, but also on the services offered to customers in a market concentrated around a handful of groups. This takeover bid “ could be the first of a new phase of concentrations, motivated by the exuberance of profits, which would aggravate competition problems ” And ” financial exclusion », Judged the Workers Commission union in a press release. As a reminder, the Spanish banking sector has experienced significant consolidation since the financial crisis of 2008, marked by the virtual disappearance of regional savings banks. This phenomenon has resulted in tens of thousands of job losses.
Bank merger: in Spain, BBVA once again offers marriage to Banco Sabadell
