The Diplomat
Banco Sabadell yesterday rejected the offer that BBVA had made last week to merge both entities, considering that it would generate more value alone. This was reported by the entity to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
The Board of Directors of Sabadell yesterday evaluated BBVA’s offer and based its decision on the opinion that it can create greater value for the shareholder if it remains alone.
Last Wednesday, the bank announced its formal proposal for Sabadell, in which it proposed an exchange of one newly issued BBVA share for every 4.83 Sabadell shares, with a 30% premium over the value at which the company was listed. on Monday, April 29. This offer meant valuing Sabadell at around 11,000 million euros, following the price at which BBVA closed this Monday of 9.84 euros per share.
In turn, the offer implied raising the value of the share in Sabadell to 2.2 euros, which is currently trading at 1.89 euros per share, taking into account the 30% premium. Following this exchange, BBVA was willing to issue shares of 1,126 million euros, which represent 20% of its market capitalization.
BBVA, for its part, regretted the decision, according to sources from the entity. “We regret that the board of Banco Sabadell has rejected such an attractive offer,” he said after the news.
This is not the first time that both banks have had this operation on the table. Already in 2020, BBVA and Sabadell studied a merger, although they finally ended up rejecting it because they did not reach an agreement on the share exchange ratio.