The arrival of spring not only brings the time change and milder temperatures. For investors in the Spanish stock market, it is the starting gun for the most lucrative period of the year. In 2025, the Ibex-35 reaffirmed itself as the one with the most generous remuneration in the Old Continent. According to the latest market data, the Spanish selective index leads dividend yield in Europe, thus breaking its own record of payments in a year marked by the strength of business results.

BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres is optimistic about the bank's growth despite the current global climate of geopolitical uncertainty. "Despite the current uncertain environment marked by trade tensions and armed conflicts, but also by great opportunities, the bank faces this context with confidence," Torres stated at the annual general meeting of shareholders held this Friday in Bilbao. In fact, the bank's chairman affirmed that they expect to continue growing faster than their competitors and to lead the era of artificial intelligence—"as we have done until now," he said—despite exposure to potentially volatile markets, such as Turkey, which accounts for 7% of their business, and Mexico, which in 2025 represented 45.4%.

Following the National Court's decision to send BBVA, as a legal entity, and its former president Francisco González to trial, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has made its move, demanding a 173-year prison sentence for the former executive and a fine of over €180 million for the financial institution. This is the prosecution's sentencing request in the espionage case related to the company of former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, as stated in the prosecution's indictment. Specifically, González faces a five-year prison sentence for continuous active bribery and an additional 168 years for 42 counts of disclosing and revealing secrets (four years for each count). However, sources within the Public Prosecutor's Office specify that, if convicted, the maximum sentence the former BBVA president would serve is three times the most severe penalty imposed. Regarding the financial penalty for the bank, it amounts to nine million euros for bribery (5,000 euros per day for five years) and 172.8 million euros for 48 counts of disclosing secrets (5,000 euros per day for two years for each count). The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office believes this penalty is warranted for having hired Villarejo between 2004 and 2016. During those years, the bank, then headed by González, contracted Cenyt, the retired police commissioner's company, to spy on the construction company Sacyr.

The National Court has confirmed that there is sufficient evidence to send BBVA, as a legal entity, to trial, along with Francisco González, who was president of the financial institution between 2000 and 2018, and twelve other individuals, including senior executives of the bank and police officials, in the Villarejo case. Thus, BBVA is, for now, the first and only company in the Ibex-35 to go to trial in this case, while other implicated companies such as Repsol, CaixaBank, and Iberdrola have not been required to appear in court. In a ruling made public this Friday morning, the Criminal Chamber of the National Court considers that there is sufficient evidence for the defendants to stand trial for alleged crimes of continuous bribery and the discovery and disclosure of secrets resulting from the hiring of the now-retired police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. The entity then headed by Francisco González hired Cenyt, Villarejo's company, to spy on the construction company Sacyr. The judges of the National Court have thus dismissed in full the eleven appeals filed against the ruling issued by former investigating judge Manuel García Castellón in the summer of 2024, when he decided to send the Bilbao-based entity and the rest of Francisco's associates to trial. In line with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the Criminal Chamber of the National Court is prosecuting the bank and endorsing the investigating judge's argument that the entity's claim of ignorance regarding the events was not credible. As for Francisco González, the judges also interpret that there is evidence suggesting that the former president knew that the information Villarejo's company obtained was through practices that "did not respect the law." In the summer of 2024, Judge García-Castellón, now retired, brought to a close the investigation, initiated in 2018, of separate case number 9 of the so-called Tándem case, the operation investigating the spying on companies and individuals by retired police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. There is no further possibility of appealing the decision made public this Friday. The next step is to issue the order to open the oral proceedings and set the trial date. However, it should be noted that the current president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, is not listed as a suspect. "BBVA's priority has always been full cooperation with the Justice system [...] It has always maintained, and continues to maintain, that the investigated facts do not give rise to criminal liability for the institution," the bank stated, adding that the members of the current board of directors "have no connection" with the case.

More movement in the banking sector. If last week Sabadell surprised us with the departure of its CEO, César González-Bueno, now it's BBVA's turn to make a signing aimed at showcasing its support for Catalonia: the proposal of Catalan Jordi Montalbo as an independent director of the bank is a move to invest in the region after the failed takeover bid for the bank he chairs. Likewise, Pablo Isla will be appointed the new vice president of L'Oréal, Covestro is redefining the leadership of its production centers in Catalonia, and the Focus group has appointed a new CEO.

BBVA's board of directors will propose the appointment of Catalan Jordi Montalbo Todolí as an independent director to the next shareholders' meeting. With this move, the bank, chaired by Carlos Torres Vila, aims to underscore its commitment to Catalonia following the collapse of its takeover bid for Banc Sabadell last October. Montalbo, born in 1965, is an independent director of Med Vida (Mediterráneo Vida, SA de Seguros y Reaseguros) and spent much of his career at Deloitte, from 1990 to 2022. At the consulting firm, he specialized in sector auditing. He held prominent positions such as partner in charge of insurance in Spain, as well as partner in audit and insurance for financial services and co-lead audit leader for the insurance sector in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The prospective BBVA director holds a degree in economics and business administration from the University of Barcelona. He holds a high level of technical specialization as an insurance actuary from the same university. He has also completed several training and development programs both in Spain and abroad. His appointment is subject to verification by the European Central Bank (ECB) to confirm that he meets the regulatory requirements for suitability to serve as a board member.

For the four largest banks in Spain, 2025 was not a bad year. In fact, with the exception of Banco Sabadell, CaixaBank, Banco Santander, and BBVA all posted record profits. However, the bank originating in the Vallès region closed the year with a net loss. match ball from the hostile takeover bid and will continue, for now, on the independent path it has so strongly advocated. In total, both entities have achieved a record profit of €32.278 billion this year. If the profits of Bankinter and Unicaja are added to that figure, the final total is €34 billion, more than double what they earned just four years ago (€16.289 billion).

BBVA has definitively buried the chapter on the hostile takeover bid for Banc Sabadell. Now the financial institution wants to focus on the strategic plan outlined last summer, which requires continued growth, but independently, both within and outside the Spanish market. With the possibility of acquiring Sabadell now gone, Torres has closed the door on any alternative: "There are no possibilities for consolidation in Spain now that the Sabadell deal has passed," the executive stated. Likewise, when asked about the acquisition that Banco Santander has just announced in the United States, the BBVA chairman affirmed that the bank feels "no pressure to make an acquisition." "We must have a plan that generates organic value for shareholders," Carlos Torres reiterated during the presentation of the 2025 results, which are once again record-breaking – between January and December of last year, the bank earned €10.511 billion, a 4.5% increase. BBVA, in fact, decided to sell part of its US business in 2020. "It was the right decision," Torres stated. Santander, on the other hand, is taking the opposite approach: "You can't be a global bank without being in the United States," Ana Botín argued this Tuesday. Her words have been interpreted as a kind of lesson at the Bilbao-based bank. "I don't know what it means to be a global bank," Torres asserted, avoiding any comment on Santander's €12.2 billion acquisition of Webster Bank.

On October 16th of last year, the banking episode that had dominated economic headlines for almost a year and a half came to an end: BBVA's hostile takeover bid for Banc Sabadell failed With only 25% acceptance from the second bank's shareholders, the offer was insufficient to move forward or launch a second takeover bid. Catalonia openly applauded the outcome, Sabadell celebrated with a massive party at the Palau Sant Jordi, and BBVA, led by Carlos Torres, accepted defeat. with a message of resignationA few months later, with a new year ahead, how are the two banks approaching 2026 after the takeover bid?

2025 is a record-breaking year for the Spanish stock market. For the first time, five listed companies have surpassed a valuation of €100 billion. These include four companies from the Ibex 35, the country's main stock market index: Inditex (€175.218 billion), Banco Santander (€148.347 billion), Iberdrola (€122.466 billion), and BBVA (€114.055 billion). Airbus (€155.430 billion) joins them on the continuous market, a market that is setting all-time records and is one of the most profitable in the world, according to the latest report from Bolsas y Mercados (BME), the Spanish stock exchange operator. Together, these five companies represent almost half the total value of the 130 companies on the continuous market, three-quarters of which are concentrated in the Ibex 35.

BBVA – which has accelerated shareholder payouts after The takeover bid for Banc Sabadell failed– has been among the last to increase its share buyback programs, by an amount of nearly €4 billion, the largest in the company's history. With this latest operation, share buybacks by the major Spanish companies in the Ibex 35 will exceed €14 billion this year, at the same levels as the previous year, maintaining the upward trend of this shareholder remuneration method.

BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell was a process that lasted almost a year and a half and was ultimately rejected by shareholders. During this period, both entities dedicated significant resources, one to achieving its objectives and the other to defending itself. However, Sabadell managed to increase its corporate banking business, one of its pillars. It has reached a 16.25% share of total corporate lending (CIRBE), compared to 13.28% last year, and the number of clients in this segment has grown from 65,000 to 85,600 in a year, according to Eduardo Currás de Don Pablos, Deputy General Manager and Head of Corporate Banking at the bank. The entity is achieving the objectives it set just before the takeover bid, which was finalized on May 9, 2024. One of these objectives is to reach a CIRBE share of 20%. In any case, the bank has lowered the customer threshold from €10 million in revenue to €2 million and has added the start-ups

The Mexican investorDavid Martínez Guzmán,The third largest shareholder and largest individual shareholder of Banco Sabadell, with 3.86% of the capital, has resigned as a board member, the bank announced in a statement to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). In his letter, Martínez Guzmán stated that during his 12 years on the board of the Catalan bank, he had witnessed a transformation of the institution. He also expressed his deep gratitude for the resounding success achieved by the chairman and the bank's teams.

In these 15 years of the ARA, the Catalan economy, which three lustrums ago had a gross domestic product (GDP) of about 200 billion euros, has today more than 300 billion, more than 50% higher; it has experienced a total restructuring of the financial system, the flight of business headquarters with the referendum of October 1, 2017 and a fall in activity like in the Civil War due to the coronavirus crisis. This period has now ended with Banc Sabadell shareholders' refusal to accept BBVA's takeover bid, which BBVA had already attempted in 2020. But the story of this newspaper, which hit newsstands (there were still quite a few) on November 28, 2012, featuring Mois Noguera, the first Catalan born that year, on the front page, began two months after a general strike against labor reforms under the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as Spanish Prime Minister. Following the biggest economic crisis since 1929, recovery was beginning to offer hope, but the world was reeling from the shock of the attacks on the debt of Greece and Ireland, and other countries with high deficits, including Spain.

BBVA has turned the page on the failed hostile takeover bid for Banc Sabadell, flexing its muscles with record results through September. The financial institution posted a net profit of €7.978 billion in the first nine months of 2025, representing a 4.7% increase compared to the same period last year, as reported this Thursday morning to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). These results are the first announced since the outcome of the takeover bid for Sabadell. in which only 25% of the share capital BBVA accepted the offer, which definitively derailed the operation. "Whatever we do, we do it to create value for our shareholders [...], and the best thing we can do is close the chapter on the takeover bid," said the bank's CEO, Onur Genç, at a press conference this Thursday. "We're not going to make excuses," he said. In any case, Genç regretted that it was a "missed opportunity" for both entities, as well as for investors and customers.

The BBVA-Banc Sabadell case has opened the door to exploring the limits of the laws that have come into play throughout the hostile takeover bid, one of the most media-covered and politicized in recent years, which ultimately derailed. Consequently, the need, or lack thereof, to review and update some of the regulations has been on the table, the content of which has been at one point or another a key issue during these seventeen months that marked the outcome. The Competition Law and the Takeover Law have been placed in the spotlight. Had a merger between BBVA and Banc Sabadell been successful, the banking law, which leaves it up to the Spanish government to authorize or reject a merger, would also have come into play.

"I think what we didn't do well in this takeover bid was that in the final days we were convinced there would be a second bid because they would exceed 30%, and that didn't happen; therefore, we wasted time for three days," said Josep Oliu, president of Banc Sabadell. the failure of BBVA's takeover bid for the bank he presides over during a conversation at the Prisa group's World in Progress (WIP) conference, held Monday and Tuesday at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya in Barcelona.

I'm still here. Just a few minutes ago, the news broke about the failure of BBVA's offensive against Banco Sabadell—this story is over—and Carlos Torres, the president of the attacking bank, was already on the scene. He was in a hurry. The scale of the defeat, after his hyperbolic campaign, might have made him think that if he took too long to leave, perhaps someone else would offer condolences to those who had trusted him.

The failure of BBVA's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell opens a new scenario for the Catalan financial institution and the Spanish sector. Experts predict future movements in the mid-sized banking sector that could be led by the Vallesan bank, now smaller following the agreement to sell its British subsidiary TSB to Santander, which provides a fifth of its profits. The objective is to strengthen the bank's profile "focused on Spain, one of the countries with the best economic prospects in the European Union," which means "having predictable income and a controlled cost of risk," explained the financial director, Sergi Palavecino, to present the strategic plan until 2027 in July.

The outcome of BBVA's takeover bid for Banc de Sabadell was unexpected, both for analysts and for the presidents of both banks, Carlos Torres and Josep Oliu. It's reminiscent of the failure of José Ángel Sánchez Asiaín, president of Banco de Bilbao, when his hostile takeover bid for Banesto failed in 1987. BBVA only achieved a 25% or so approval rate. It was expected that the takeover bid among Sabadell shareholders would be between 30% and 50%, so BBVA had to consider whether to go ahead, and there was speculation about whether the price would be raised (which had to be "fair" and approved by the CNMV).