Banco Sabadell, Jesus and the resurrection

BarcelonaThe president of Banc Sabadell, Josep Oliu, gave very little chance of success in the takeover bid launched by BBVA this Friday. He understands that it was stillborn and that the shareholders will bury itBut there is an option to avoid the expected funeral and see a revival if the Basque-born bank "substantially" improves its offer. The situation, then, takes on the characteristics of a miracle, in the eyes of the Catalan bank's leadership. The fact is that BBVA's offensive, which has been going on for more than sixteen months and insists it will not improve the price, underestimates the value of the Catalan bank, according to its board.

In any case, there's a chance the corpse could come back to life. When this journalist (erroneously) asked what would happen if a Lazarus appeared (oh, slip of the tongue!) with a good price under his arm, Oliu (correctly) jokingly corrected him: "No, no, Jesus." In that case, there could be a resurrection of the takeover bid.

Is it then just a question of money when the majority of the Catalan business community has defended the continuation of a local bank? There hasn't been a very clear answer, but in any case, Sabadell is rejecting the current offer and doesn't intend to say what price they would be willing to recommend a sale to shareholders. This, Oliu admitted, will be the subject of a possible next chapter, or rather, verse, of this story.