BBVA has communicated to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) its transfer to the president of the Board of Directors of Banco de Sabadell of its interest in exploring a merger that would create the largest bank in Spain. The possible operation would form an entity with around 400 offices in the Valencian Community and around 2,500 workers in the autonomous region.
Having closed down numerous local branches, Banc Sabadell currently has 211 offices in the region -61 in Valencia, 132 Alicante and 17 in Castellón-, while BBVA accumulates 200 – 100 in València, 79 in Alicante and 21 in Castellón. As for staff, it would be 1,160 people in the first and about 1,400 in the second, according to the banking entities.
Caixabank, which merged with Bankia, has 329 offices in the Valencian Community. This scenario, according to the bank chaired by Josep Oliu, is the subject of study by the entity’s Board of Directors.
The bank globally would have 7,326 offices (5,912 from BBVA and 1,414 from Sabadell), while in Spain the physical presence would be 3,084 offices (1,881 from BBVA and 1,203 from Sabadell). Regarding employees, the joint group would have a workforce of 140,776 workers, of which 41,634 would be in Spain.
It is not the first time that both banks have tried this merger, in 2020, BBVA and Sabadell studied the same, although they finally ended up rejecting it because they did not reach an agreement on the share exchange ratio.
In market capitalisation, the group resulting from this merger would reach a market value of 73 billion euro, according to the current price of both entities, a short distance from Banco Santander, which just exceeds 74 billion euro, and almost double what CaixaBank capitalises (37.5 billion). A resulting bank that would surpass CaixaBank as the largest bank in Spain, without taking into account foreign businesses.
