It was the great economic upheaval in Catalonia in 2024 and, no matter how it turns out, it will be one of the big news stories of 2025. BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell, which poses an existential threat to Catalonia's fourth-largest company, is a story that has followed ARA readers for the past twelve months.Companies We wanted to take a chronological look at this hectic year, looking at our readers' comments. This is the movie of the year as you saw it.

Page 8 of the Government agreements of April 1st includes one of the most anticipated news items of the last year at the Leitat technology center. The organization, which employs 500 workers, learned this Tuesday that the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) has guaranteed it up to 14 million euros in financing "to contribute to the maintenance of its activity."

When BBVA launched its takeover bid for Banc Sabadell, the financial sector unanimously expressed: "Poor Carlos Torres, if he fails the second time." It was the spring of 2024, and the Catalan power houses were remembering the failed attempt by the BBVA chairman in 2020. At that time, in the midst of the Covid crisis, the Catalan bank had hit rock bottom, with the share price at 26 cents, and the Biscayan bank wanted to buy it.

Antoni Pont (Tàrrega, 1934) receives the ARA Award at his home in Reus. This morning he did an hour of gymnastics and doesn't look his almost 91 years old. Surrounded by memories and photographs from a lifetime (with Henry Kissinger, George Bush Sr., Juan Carlos I, John Paul II, Felipe González, Bill Clinton, José María Aznar, Felipe VI, and Leo Messi, among many others), he reviews his career and that of the family business, an agricultural giant of his. Four people were in charge; he was only president because he was the oldest.

The clock is ticking, and the Competition Authority's ruling on BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell is entering its decisive phase. Financial sources indicate that the CNMC's ruling on the transaction will be made public in early April (probably on the 7th, 8th, or 9th of next month). This review is in its second phase, following the agency's November decision. did not give it the green light in phase 1, in a decision that boosted the Catalan bank's prospects.

On January 1 of that year, Moventia appointed a new president, replacing Miquel Martí with his brother, Josep Maria. The family business explained to ARA its challenges for the coming years, with a milestone it could achieve by 2025: doubling its turnover in just three years.

Josep Oliu (Sabadell, 1949) welcomes ARA on Saturday at noon on the 22nd floor of the Torre Sabadell (today Diagonal Vertical), in the heart of Eixample, where he maintains his office as president of the Catalan bank. Given his casual attitude, one would not guess that the century-old bank is suffering a takeover bid from BBVA, which could put an end to its history and that it is entering its decisive phase. Oliu is optimistic and displays his proverbial good humor: of the Jaume Plensa sculpture he has, a true work of art, he says "the doll, the doll of the burning".

A minute-long applause, emotion on the president's face, tears in the front rows. It was the culminating moment of the eagerly awaited general shareholders' meeting of Banc Sabadell held this Thursday in the co-capital of Vallès. The ovation was led by Josep Oliu, and the message was clear: a show of strength in the face of the threat of a takeover bid.

Banc Sabadell celebrates again this Thursday A shareholders' meeting in Catalonia after eight years and it does so in a climate of fierce confrontation with the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC). The Catalan entity arrives at its annual meeting with shareholders at a decisive moment due to the hostile takeover bid presented by BBVA in May of last year, which could lead to its demise.

The BBVA takeover bid is a major headache for Banc Sabadell customers, to the point that 43% of the Catalan bank's customers say they would consider changing banks if the hostile takeover goes ahead. The rejection of the operation doesn't end there: three out of ten customers who have the bank chaired by Josep Oliu as their main bank are calling on the Spanish government to prohibit a takeover bid that could mean the end of Banc Sabadell.

The business world has historically been associated with male leaders in suits and ties. The demand for a greater female presence in management positions has been a topic of theses and proposals from business associations for decades, to the point that parity is increasingly becoming a tool for assessing organizations' corporate policy. Little by little, the situation is improving: according to the latest data from Grant Thornton, Catalonia has 44.2% women in senior positions, the highest rate in Spain. In fact, the percentage recorded by the report this year in Catalonia has increased by 8.2 points compared to last year, placing the Principality 5.8 points above the Spanish average (38.4%). Since theCompaniesWe bring you a selection of 10 influential female executives in the Catalan economy, including established figures and lesser-known profiles.

The most successful year in the history of Spanish banking wasn't a success for all entities. The Spanish subsidiary of Triodos, the ethical bank of Dutch origin, announced losses of 3 million euros this Thursday. The results contrast with the profits for 2023, which were 77 million. This collapse in results has one explanation: Triodos' controversial CDAs.

A legend accompanies José Luis Escrivá, which points to him as an involuntary humorist of reference. In addition to his air of mischievous bonhomie, there are some facts that will be difficult to erase from the collective imagination: when he got confused at an event when he was Minister of Social Security and by mistake put water in the space intended precisely for placing the bottle. Those laughs – that of Escrivá himself and that of those who saw him – have turned him into a curiously charismatic character and from whom endless gags are expected.

An economic mantra says that mergers between equals do not exist: there are buyers and buyers. This reality, which Banc Sabadell now faces with the threat of a takeover bid by BBVA, was made clear this Thursday at the major Catalan bank. CaixaBank has announced the renewal of its board, in which five directors are leaving. The latter are the former president José Ignacio Goirigolzarri and the independents Joaquín Ayuso, Francisco Javier Campo and Eva Castillo, who joined after its merger with Bankia. José Serna, a director representing La Caixa, is also leaving.

The La Caixa Foundation announced on Wednesday that it will increase its budget by 9% in 2025 to 655 million euros, which is "a record in the history of the entity", according to the Foundation itself.

Nine months later, Banc Sabadell is still immersed in the hostile takeover launched by BBVA. Since then, many things have changed, such as the evolution of the value of its shares (with the numbers in hand, the proposed exchange already represents a loss for Sabadell shareholders), but also in regard to its corporate headquarters: Seven years later, Sabadell has returned to the city of Valles. Its CEO, César González-Bueno, receives the ARA in Madrid at a time when the operation is on the verge of being ruled on by the Competition Authority.

Changes at the top of Seeliger and Conde. The founder of the Barcelona-based headhunting firm, Luis Conde, will once again serve as executive president. According to ARA, this is not the only change the company will experience: the current CEO, Eduardo Antunovic, will lose that status and will become just a director. Antunovic began to play this role after Luis Conde sold the company he had founded in the late 1980s with Gerardo Seeliger to the New York multinational Kingsley Gate in 2023.

Up to 54,000 million euros less credit. This is, according to Pimec, the feared situation that will occur in the event that BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell succeeds and there is a merger between entities. This was warned this Tuesday by the SME Observatory, linked to the employers' association of Catalan SMEs, in the presentation of a report in which it reiterated its opposition to an operation that would make one of the four large Spanish banks disappear.

After months of public and private pressure, the Catalan government has obtained a flexibilisation of regional governments' reference deficit rate for 2023. As ARA has been able to confirm with sources from the Spanish and Catalan executives, this limit, which was to be 0.1% in 2023, will finally be 0.3% of GDP. All regions will benefit, and in the case of Catalonia this means around €500m (some sources in the Generalitat say €470m, while others put it at €525m).

The W, in all its magnitude, has become a real possibility. After the economic collapse due to covid and a recovery that raised complex calligraphic debates, but in the end left what looked like the symbol for a square root on growth charts, the Russian invasion of Ukraine may once again push Europe into recession. As this would be the second recession, the blows received by the European economy would leave us with a curve closer to a W, a situation already experienced when the 2008 financial and real estate crisis was followed by the even worse relapse of the 2012 public debt crisis.