Shareholders endorse the new phase of Banco Sabadell

BarcelonaWith the highest quorum in recent years, over 71%, according to the secretary of the board, Miquel Roca, Banco Sabadell has gathered shareholders today at the first post-failed BBVA OPA meeting. A meeting that has served as a farewell from the CEO who has been for the last more than five years, César González-Bueno; and a welcome to the new one, Marc Armengol, a professional with more than 25 years of experience in the company. And it had an unusual ending for board meetings, a refreshment as an shareholder requested a year ago, recalled the bank's president, Josep Oliu.

The bank begins a new stage "alone" in its 145-year history after the integration attempt by BBVA failed, as Oliu said, and is marked by "the recovery of normality," according to some attendees. Shareholders have given the green light to the roadmap in this new phase of the entity, with no mergers in sight and combining digitalization with "relationship banking" and Armengol as CEO.

Oliu, who has reviewed the entity's results last year, has highlighted the «extraordinary management» of González-Bueno, especially during the takeover bid period; and the suitability to replace him by Armengol, one of whose tasks will be to transform the bank in the new environment of artificial intelligence and be the «best company bank in Spain».

In a farewell speech with a large and long standing ovation afterwards from the shareholders, González-Bueno has highlighted as characteristics of the new stage the focus on the Spanish market. The objectives are also growth orientation and shareholder remuneration, with more than 6,450 million from 2025 to 2027, which includes the extraordinary dividend of 50 cents per share for the sale of the British subsidiary TSB to Banco Santander.

González-Bueno has recalled the transformation carried out in the bank in all business areas. Net profit has gone from 2 million euros in 2020 to 1,775 million in 2025. «The radical turn of our financial year has been recognized by the market: the share price adjusted for dividends has multiplied by 12.3 from the end of 2020 to the close of 2025», he explained. The auditorium, at the request of one of the shareholders, applauded again in recognition of González-Bueno's work.

In a situation like the current one, in which banking "is very solid," integrations between medium-sized entities are ruled out, a path that Sabadell could lead, as Oliu explained during a meeting with the press prior to the board meeting and reiterating what González-Bueno said at the presentation of results for the first quarter yesterday Tuesday. In Oliu's opinion, all banks, in addition to obtaining solid results currently, "have their project and their territorial roots." And he concluded: "Today is not the time."

Alliances or purchases of some businesses

Armengol, who was the CEO of TSB, has debuted before the shareholders, who gave him a standing ovation, with a speech at the end of the meeting. He explained the moment of transformation, competition, and protagonism of technology that banking is experiencing. He has committed to maintaining personal relationships with clients and supporting companies, combining it with the use of technology, as a bank more tied to the territory now that TSB has been sold.

In a meeting prior to the assembly, Armengol did not rule out that the bank may have to sign alliances or make some acquisitions in some of the businesses in which it wants to strengthen its service to clients. In addition to payment methods, one of the areas in which it will focus is the digitalization of business directed at companies and SMEs. "We will not be the biggest, but we will be the closest to the clients' needs, the fastest in offering solutions, and the most oriented to anticipating and proposing innovative solutions in a period of rapid changes," he concluded in his speech to the shareholders.

During the shareholders' interventions, the different union representatives took the opportunity, despite thanking González-Bueno for his work and welcoming Armengol, to criticize the management for its labor policy and the excessive workload of the staff.

At the meeting, the incorporations to the board of María Gloria Hernández García and Margarita Salvans Puigbò were ratified, as were the departures of Laura González Molero, Alicia Reyes Revuelta, and the Mexican investor David Martínez Guzmán. In addition to confirming Armengol as CEO, Carles Ventura is ratified as the new executive director. Lluís Deulofeu Fuguet, Pedro Fontana García, and George Donald Johnston III are also re-elected as independent directors.