BBVA-Sabadell: Once upon a time there was a takeover bid

BarcelonaAt BBVA headquarters they are surely analyzing it with a magnifying glass. The two unusual shareholders' meetings held this Wednesday by Banc Sabadell, in which both the sale of the British subsidiary TSB and the distribution of an additional dividend linked to the transaction amounting to 2.5 billion were overwhelmingly endorsed. They insisted so much that this move, which represents the reinforcement of Santander—BBVA's main competitor—in the United Kingdom, has nothing to do with the takeover bid launched in May of last year by the Basque bank for the Catalan bank that no one believes it. Furthermore, this sale undermines one of the objectives of the entity chaired by Carlos Torres: to reduce the weight of its businesses in Mexico and Turkey with the contribution not only of the Spanish part of Sabadell, but also of the British one.

The fact is that from day one, the board of directors of the Valles-based entity—led by the president, Josep Oliu, and the CEO, César Gónzález-Bueno—has opposed the operation with all its might. And it has had the support of a large part of the Catalan business and economic community, as well as the Catalan and Spanish governments, to maintain at least one major bank with headquarters in Catalonia. To the light conditions imposed by the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) regarding free competition, Pedro Sánchez's government added the merger ban for three years, which could reach five. A decision that has caused the intervention of the European Commission, despite being an operation based on Spanish laws.

Sabadell took advantage of the situation last January to return its headquarters to the city which saw its birth 144 years ago. A first step that earned him a standing ovation, although many others criticize and unforgive him for deciding to move his headquarters to Alicante in 2017 due to the independence referendum. For months, Sabadell has carried out a series of moves that have rendered BBVA's takeover bid meaningless. "The entity chaired by Carlos Torres has relied on... sublime and has not taken into account the idiosyncrasy of Sabadell, founded by entrepreneurs and made up of many small shareholders, many of whom are also customers (almost like a cooperative, saving the distances)", some say.

There is some of that. the takeover bid. One way to achieve it would be to improve the conditions, but this could harm the interests of the bank of Basque origin itself. There are those who assume that the most intelligent measure would be to withdraw in the middle of August. 50.01% of Sabadell's capital, the threshold that was imposed on the takeover bid, whose details must be included in the prospectus, whose presentation to the CNMV was decided to postpone until September at the latest, we will know if it once existed or_.