The president of BBVA , Carlos Torres , has publicly acknowledged the defeat in his bid for Banco Sabadell , stating that he has no plans to resign despite the disappointing outcome of the operation, which saw just 25.4% of the bank’s capital participating. “I am not considering resigning. My continuity at the bank does not depend on this process ,” Torres expressed confidently. He emphasized that the bid was approved step by step and “unanimously by the board of directors.” He added, “I feel fully supported by the board and the shareholders’ meeting.”
“It matters little what could have happened. The result is not what we desired. When we made our estimates, they were based on the information we had at that time,” Carlos Torres defended his optimistic predictions regarding the acceptance of the bid, initially estimating support to be around 60%-70% .
He indicated that in the retail investor segment, a second bid and the contrary opinion of Banco Sabadell may have influenced the results, which appears to have attracted passive funds participating at very low rates. “However, the traditional institutional investors, who have a long-term view and had communicated to us that they would participate, have largely followed through,” said the executive.
The bid was accepted by only 25.47% of the voting rights (25.33% of shares), according to a report from the Comisión Nacional de Mercado de Valores (CNMV) , which did not detail who subscribed to the offer. This result is clearly insufficient to even contemplate a second operation, which was the central hypothesis of the entire market and has miserably failed in its forecasts.
“The public offer has produced a negative result as the minimum limit set by the offeror for the validity was not reached, and adhering to the terms of the offer prospectus, no waiver to this minimum can occur since the number of Banco Sabadell shares that accepted the offer represents less than 30% of its voting rights, excluding treasury stock. Therefore, according to Article 33.3 of the mentioned Royal Decree, the offer is rendered void,” stated the regulatory body’s communication this Thursday. BBVA, which had improved its offer in shares while the acceptance period was already underway, suffered from a negative premium on its stock price for months, causing losses for anyone who participated in the exchange.
A “Celebration” at Sabadell
The CEO of Banco Sabadell, César González Bueno , expressed on Friday that the outcome of BBVA’s bid for the Catalan entity “has surprised us very favorably” after the operation’s failure with an acceptance rate of just 25.47% .
“I’m pleased because it was a celebration within the bank,” he acknowledged in an interview with ‘Onda Cero’, as reported by Servimedia. González Bueno admitted that although they expected the bid to fail, they anticipated that the result would be “close to the post,” more towards 30% , which could trigger a mandatory bid, instead of being “so far below” with just 25.47% . “Excluding some arbitrageurs who are the more speculative part and David Martínez, support has been minimal,” González Bueno stated.
David Martínez is the Mexican businessman and the third-largest shareholder of Sabadell, holding 3.86% , who explicitly expressed his support for BBVA’s bid. During the interview, González Bueno jokingly remarked that there would be no “reprisals” for this shareholder because “today is a day of joy.”
González Bueno asserted that the bid’s outcome endorses Sabadell as “a great project,” leading to considerable “satisfaction within the entity.” He added that only 1.1% of Sabadell’s individual shareholders, who are also their customers, participated in the first bid. He also highlighted that even with the arbitrageurs, known for altering market dynamics, the bid did not gain traction.
Moreover, he emphasized that the bid faced “social opposition,” which was later joined by a “widespread political opposition,” concluding that this rejection stems from concerns that “too many banks have already disappeared in Spain,” necessitating “a minimum level of competition.”
The shares of Sabadell opened trading on Friday with a drop of over 6% , a behavior that González Bueno attributed to “self-fulfilling prophecies.” “As everyone expects it to happen, it happens,” he noted, downplaying the significance while also stressing that Sabadell has been among the best-performing stocks in the European market and the Ibex 35 , asserting that its future and valuation would continue its upward trajectory.