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%.

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?

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.

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 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).

A merger attempt marked by its heightened hostility is coming to an end. As citizens, we should rejoice that it didn't serve to increase the country's banking concentration. I don't think shareholders and employees of both necessarily have to think the same. BBVA, a large bank, has seen its strategy and the credibility of its management eroded in the medium term. The exact opposite is true for Sabadell: congratulations to its managers, but it's becoming a very complex task for them, and it's starting now. The opposite will happen to shareholders: despite Sabadell's success, the stock price is expected to suffer in the short term. Its value is falling, inflated by the same expectation of a takeover bid and an extraordinary dividend distribution that must not decapitalize the bank.

Surely the fans of the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres Vila (Salamanca, 1966), for The Origin of Species Charles Darwin's influence has prompted him to try to take control of Banc Sabadell. He tried it in 2020, a year after becoming president of the bank, where he had been CEO since 2015, and it didn't work out. Four years later, he's back, leading an intense 17-month offensive that the Catalan bank ultimately won.

This is a seventeen-month story. That of BBVA and Banc Sabadell. One of the longest takeover bids in Spain, especially in the banking sector. And unlike usual, it was hostile, as the Catalan bank opposed it from the very beginning. This Friday, the outcome was announced: the takeover failed. Only a quarter of Sabadell's capital had agreed to BBVA's proposal.

Carlos Torres (Salamanca, 1966) is convinced that in a few weeks he'll be able to celebrate the resounding success—over 50% acceptance—of the hostile takeover bid launched by BBVA for Sabadell, the deadline for which is next Friday. However, he believes the Catalan bank is making it difficult for its shareholders to participate in the takeover bid and has filed a complaint with the CNMV (Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission). According to Torres, the fact that Sabadell's largest individual shareholder has announced his acceptance of BBVA's offer is "enormously significant," and he denies that there has been any agreement between him and his bank.

"It is not mandatory to accept the takeover bid. In fact, the best thing to do is to do nothing, take the paper [of the takeover bid] and throw it in the trash, and you will have fulfilled your duty as a loyal shareholder of Banco Sabadell." This is how the chairman of Banc Sabadell, Josep Oliu, asked his shareholders not to accept BBVA's takeover bid. He did so at a meeting with investors alongside the CEO, César González-Bueno, in which they explained the bank's board's reasons for rejecting the takeover bid. During the meeting, they also took the opportunity to deny the statements made by BBVA chairman Carlos Torres, who said last week that Sabadell's shares would fall if the takeover bid were to fail.: "If there is any fall, it will be short-lived, but little by little the bank will recover its value," said Oliu.

We're on the first day of the takeover bid period. You insist that the offer for Sabadell "is what it is," but analysts say the...

"It's not every day that an opportunity like this arises." This is how BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres began his remarks during the press conference to present the takeover bid at Banc Sabadell. whose prospectus has been approved by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV)Accompanied by CEO Onur Genç, Torres emphasized the advantages of the transaction and asserted that, as it is largely in BBVA shares, which have risen, the value of the offer proposed almost a year and a half ago has gone from Sabadell's valuation of €12.2 billion to €17.4 billion. "The offer is what it is," and if the objectives are not met because there are not enough shareholders who join, "absolutely nothing happens," since BBVA has its own project, he asserted. The bank can modify its offer up to five days before the end of the acceptance period, a point Torres insisted on rejecting.

BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres stated this Friday that, if his bank's takeover bid for Banc Sabadell is successful, he will maintain the Catalan bank's brand "as long as necessary." Torres also insisted that he has no plans to improve on the offer published in the transaction prospectus, although at this time it would result in losses for Sabadell shareholders.

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.

This week has been marked by the shareholder meetings of Banc Sabadell and BBVA, two banks currently at odds over the Basque bank's takeover bid for Sabadell. The Catalan bank's shareholder meeting was held—among excited shareholders—again at Sabadell, at home, after the bank returned its headquarters to Catalonia at the beginning of the year. Both meetings voted to renew the positions of its top executives, Carlos Torres and César González-Bueno. These are some of the week's signings:

"Basques are more restrained when they express themselves," was the rumor around BBVA just hours before its general shareholders' meeting. What they meant was that at the financial institution's gathering held this Friday at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, neither prolonged applause nor tears in the front rows could be expected, unlike what happened yesterday, Thursday, at Banc Sabadell's meeting. And they were right.