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BBVA’s Torres stuns Spain and banking bosses with hostile bid
By Jerry
MADRID/LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) – Sabadell (SABE.MC), opens new tab CEO Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno was in London on Thursday meeting with analysts to champion his bank’s success when news landed that rival BBVA (BBVA.MC), opens new tab was going hostile with its 12.23 billion-euro ($13.2 billion) takeover offer.
The surprise move – the first hostile banking takeover bid in Spain since the 1980s – pits the same long-standing executives against each other who tried and failed to negotiate a deal between Spain’s second- and fourth-largest banks in 2020.
After making a new approach late last month, BBVA Chair Carlos Torres, who led the 2020 takeover attempt, gave his Sabadell counterpart, Josep Oliu, a clear message in a May 5 letter: there would be no improving its all-share offer.
Sabadell took the unusual step of publishing that missive after its board had rejected the deal, leaving analysts scratching their heads about BBVA and Torres’ next move.
Three bankers in Madrid, who have worked with both lenders and spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were “amazed” by the aggressiveness of the decision to go hostile so soon.
“Going hostile in a domestic (financial institution) transaction is super-rare,” London-based advisory firm MKP Advisors said in a note. “But it has always felt somewhat in the last few days that BBVA could have been building up to this.”
Source: REUTER
