He BBVA still unveiling what you will do with your purchase offer (opa) About him Sabadell After the government has conditioned it to the two entities remain separated for three years, expandable in two others. The person in charge of the Bank business in Spain, Peio belasteguigoitiahas confirmed on Wednesday that all possibilities are still open: keep The offer, Remove it and bring the Executive's decision to the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court. The decision will be revealed “in the next dates,” added the banker: “I cannot realize anymore, but we have no desire in which this process is going to be delayed.”
“Not even 24 hours have passed. We are in the ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION Of the different alternatives, “the Executive justified during his speech in a course organized by the Association of Economic Information Journalist (APIE) and sponsored by the BBVA at the Menéndez Pelayo International University. Belausteguigoitia, thus recalled that the administrators and managers of the entity have the” duty to study All alternatives and possibilities Within their analysis “because they have the” fiduciary duty“To protect the interests of their shareholders. Go to justice, thus, it is not ruled out.
However, the banker has defended that the operation still makes sense, with an argument similar to that defended by the Bank before the government's decision. “The rational of the operation is impeccable. It is a rational growth. The operation is Good for Spain, Catalonia and customers“He said.
Synergies at stake
The government conditioned on Tuesday the OPA for the two banks to maintain “Legal personality and separate patrimonies and autonomy in the management “for three years, expandable in two others. This implies, for example, that there must be a” maintenance of the template because of this operation and a similar situation with respect to the offices network “. And also that the BBVA could not ask the Executive to let him merge with what would be his subsidiary until after those three or five years.
The decision harms the BBVA plans. The bank has always defended that the OPA could do and delay the petition for fusion (it might even interest it for the bank tax). He has also assured that, even in that case, he could obtain most of the 850 million euros in cost synergies with which he justified the economic sense of the operation. However, the government's decision goes beyond simply preventing merger, since it implies that the two banks should basically follow with the same structure they currently have in many areas, although one owned the other. Among his plans, he was closing 300 offices and making a template adjustment (ERE). It remains to be seen, therefore, if the BBVA will continue with the OPA or give up, as allowed by the legislation after the executive's opinion.
The bank has been defending for months its interpretation that the 2007 Competition Defense Law only allows the Executive to confirm or soften the commitments that agreed with the CNMC, not hardening them. And in recent weeks he has left the door open to the contentious-administrative hall of the Supreme Court if he understood that the Executive overreached.
