“BBVA confirms that it has informed the chairman of the Board of Directors of Sabadell” of its desire to “initiate negotiations with a view to studying a possible merger between the two entities”, said the bank in a statement sent to the Spanish market regulator.
BBVA added that it had appointed advisors for this purpose, while Sabadell, in its own communication to the stock exchange supervisor, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), stated that it had received a written proposal from BBVA for a merger today.
“The Board of Directors will adequately analyze all aspects of the proposal,” said Sabadell, Spain’s fourth largest banking group.
The two banks had announced a first merger project in November 2020, with the aim of better resisting the economic crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
The project, which would have given rise to a financial giant, would, however, be abandoned 10 days later, due to the lack of “an agreement on the possible exchange of shares between the two entities”, according to Sabadell.
The negotiation proposal comes one day after BBVA announced that it achieved net profits of 2.2 billion euros between January and March, 19% more than a year earlier.
