Escrivá criticizes BBVA's takeover bid for Sabadell for "taking too long."

When BBVA launched its takeover bid for Banco Sabadell in early May 2024, they had no idea that more than 14 months later they would still be in the process. The transaction is becoming one of the longest in recent history, largely due to the exhaustive analysis by the Competition Authority, and this has not gone unnoticed by the Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, who criticized the fact that "it is taking too long" from the supervisor's perspective, which expects "entities to have a long-term vision and be involved in their activities." This was his opinion this Thursday in Bilbao at the Tenth Finance Forum, sponsored by Elkargi.

As he pointed out, in the current model, "different entities intervene at different times." He means that a takeover bid like this passes through different hands over the course of several months. Among other things, the operation has required authorization from the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), the European Central Bank (ECB), authorities in other countries such as the United Kingdom and Mexico, and the Spanish government, and has not yet received all the necessary approvals.

The takeover bid is now in its final stages . However, the reality is that it is awaiting approval by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) of the prospectus submitted by BBVA, which is the document outlining all the terms of the transaction so that Sabadell shareholders can make their decision. Once the stock market supervisor approves the offer, the acceptance period will open in just a few days.

Escrivá also emphasized that in a process like this, "if there are elements of general interest, they must be evaluated," in a clear reference to the government's intervention. Pedro Sánchez's administration intervened in the takeover bid to authorize the operation but has vetoed the subsequent merger that BBVA intends to pursue for at least three years if the takeover is successful. All of this is based on the term "general interest," as stipulated in competition regulations.

"Looking at the entire period, what I conclude is: in a process of this nature there must be guarantees, there must be evaluations, etc., but more than a year is too long, seen from the perspective of a supervisor, who is waiting for entities to have a long-term vision and be involved, let's say, in what their activity is," said Escrivá , who, when asked how he thinks the operation will end, limited himself to pointing out that "what the shareholders say," as reported by Ep.

Regarding this type of transaction, the risk of concentration, and Europe's calls for banks to grow, he stated that it is a challenge and that "these two dimensions must be combined." In this regard, he noted that what is happening is that, as long as "certain conditions" for cross-border transactions and "genuinely European banks" are not met, what ends up happening in several countries is that integration processes "are genuinely national."

In his opinion, this is a "deficiency" related to "not having sufficiently completed the European Banking Union a few years ago." In this regard, when asked whether he believes banks should merge with entities from other countries, Escrivá stated that, within the Eurosystem, they are in favor of this and of the European Banking Union being accompanied by "larger players at a genuinely European level."