LondonThe president of Banco de Sabadell, Josep Oliu, this Monday evening in London made an extreme defense of the institution’s independence and trajectory, at the same time that he rejected, once again, the BBVA takeover bid, because it would have “a particularly negative impact on the SME segment“. Oliu, who believes that the two banks “offer more value separately than together”, made these statements in a speech during the gala dinner of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom, which thus celebrated its 137th anniversary .
Four weeks ago, the CEO of Sabadell, César González-Bueno, stated that the chances of the BBVA takeover going ahead were “very low”, and he was convinced that the operation had “derailed”. Oliu has not made so much blood, nor has he asked for more transparency in relation to the characteristics of BBVA’s offer, as González-Bueno did, but he has not spared critical comments on the proposal that the shareholders have on the table, and on which they will have to pronounce soon.
“Both government and customer aversion to this transaction introduces considerable execution risk for the buyer. All of this raises serious doubts about the value that the transaction is supposed to create, as these aspects could wipe out the potential benefits of costs and the apparent value offered,” said Oliu, of whom the president of the Spanish Chamber, Eduardo Barrachina, said it was “tempting to think of him as a Renaissance man: kind, prudent and intelligent.”
Generalized opposition
One of the problems for which Sabadell opposes the takeover is that the resulting bank would lack competition. “Business associations and chambers of commerce in Spain have clearly expressed their opposition to an agreement that they consider negative for both credit and competition in the SME segment,” he recalled.
But this does not prevent there being alternatives to strengthening institutions, when “internal consolidation reaches its limits due to competition”. That is to say, when mergers or acquisitions, hostile or not, within the same State are no longer advisable due to the damage they generate in the market. At this moment, according to Oliu, sustainable growth and “the resilience of the European banking system [es] they can achieve through cross-border operations, which create stronger and bigger banks, bring Europeans closer together and maintain competition in local markets.”
Before that, however, it is essential to lay the foundations of the “Banking Union in Europe, an ambition that has not yet started, but which I believe is desirable and [que] will be reached at some point in the future”. Oliu, however, has denounced the “barriers that work against it, such as the lack of a European deposit insurance scheme, an issue that must be urgently resolved by European Council”, he replied.
The president of the bank was proud of Sabadell’s history, an entity in the management of which “my family and I have been involved for the last 75 years”, and which “when it was founded, in 1881, by a group of 127 entrepreneurs and professionals, it did not have a controlling shareholder, which remains true to this day,” he recalled. It was clear to those attending the gala dinner of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom that Josep Oliu wants it to continue that way.
