By Jesús Aguado
MADRID (Reuters) -Sabadell bank does not expect any other offer to a merger proposal made by its bigger rival BBVA, its Chief Executive Officer Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno said on Wednesday.
Last week, another Spanish bank Abanca dismissed a report in newspaper Expansion that it was considering a deal with Sabadell. Unicaja also said it was not in talks with Sabadell.
Gonzalez-Bueno said that in the sector everyone talked to everyone with “varying degrees of intensity but we keep those conversations to ourselves”.
“What I can say with complete clarity is that there is no prospect, either in the short term or even in the medium term, of any corporate operation, and certainly not in the middle of a takeover bid. It would be a tremendous mess,” he told a financial event.
Spanish legislation requires the governing bodies of a company targeted in a takeover bid to remain passive and request shareholder approval before taking any action that might prevent an acquisition from succeeding.
Madrid opposes the deal, valued at over 14 billion euros ($15.86 billion), because of the risk it could lead to job losses. It has launched a non-binding public consultation on the matter.
On Tuesday, the chairman of BBVA Carlos Torres told radio station Cadena Cope the deal should not be subject to further government scrutiny as it would benefit shareholders, clients and businesses.
Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo has until May 27 to take the deal to the cabinet for an analysis of its impact after Spain’s competition watchdog approved the deal, subject to remedies.
If he does, the government then has a month to make a final decision whether to approve the deal with or without conditions.
Torres said that if Cuerpo did not submit the proposed deal to the cabinet, “then we would move quickly to (the bid’s) acceptance period, with the markets supervisor needing to previously authorise the takeover prospectus”.
Under Spanish law, the government cannot stop a bid from being made, but it has the final word on whether a merger goes ahead.
($1 = 0.8884 euros)
(Reporting by Jesús Aguado. Editing by Inti Landauro, Mark Potter and Barbara Lewis)
