The government will refine the ear before deciding whether or not the BBVA OPA on Banco Sabadell proceeds. The operation will only receive the green light of the Council of Ministers if it respects “the general interest” of citizens. President Pedro Sánchez has stated in Barcelona, after announcing that from tomorrow he opens a public consultation period to probe the pros and cons that generates the Basque bank offensive over the Vallelesan. “To make this decision with all the guarantees,” said Sánchez. The consultation seeks to take the pulse of “organizations, citizens and associations.” “Our intention is to help our companies grow, to win volume and competitiveness, as long as it benefits the general interest,” said the president.
Sources from the Ministry of Economy explain that public consultation is a usual process in the legislative practice of ministries. A period is opened so that associations or citizens concerned their valuations or opinions can express. The ministry admits that it is not a regulated procedure. This public consultation mechanism is usually done when the ministries approve a standard, but it is something unusual in processes of opas or business mergers.
The department directed by Carlos Corps explains that this public consultation process is done to give one more information layer to the BBVA OPA decision -making process over the Sabadell. And emphasize that it serves to collect useful information that allows the best decision on the public acquisition offer.
The fact that the Government decides to submit the OPA to public consultation to verify that it respects the general interest does not alter the deadlines, as confirmed in economics. The 15 business days available to the Ministry are used to raise it to the Council of Ministers to collect the opinions and valuations of citizens and public associations that can be harmed by the OPA.
The opinions that are presented do not have a legal character, as they could have in a decision that is drawn up a hearing. In this case, allegations or amendments would have to be collected in the norm and force and have a somewhat more binding character.
The national Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) last Wednesday completed its exhaustive OPA analysis from the economic point of view and bank competition. Now what the Executive tries to do is clarify whether the operation meets the general interest.
Pedro Sánchez’s statements have occurred on Monday in Barcelona, in the inaugural session of the days organized by the Cercle d’acomia. The influential business entity celebrates its annual conference cycle under the title Europa, wake-up callwith an agenda that tries to theorize the new world geopolitical order and seeks to analyze what role Europe should play in this new equilibrium game, between the unpredictable policy of Donald Trump and the growing influence of China. Jaume Guardiola, president of Cercle, has based his initial intervention on breakup the “vulnerabilities” suffered by Europe. “We aspire to be a relevant actor capable of defending our interests or do we prefer a secondary role?”
Despite the official agenda, the script of the Cercle Conference inevitably marks the hostile OPA launched by the BBVA on the Sabadell Bank. In this sense, in a forum full of representatives of the business and economic world, Pedro Sánchez’s reflections were highly anticipated, since the Faculty of conditioning the Basque Bank’s offensive on Catalan falls on the Government. The president has spent his twenty minutes of speech by renovating the good economic situation that Spain is experiencing, and only then has briefly assess the banking. Nor has Jaume Guardiola considered appropriate, in the public conversation he has had later with Sánchez, to ask more depth what exactly the public consultation announced by the Head of the Government is and ask him to clarify if he will be binding.
The president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, and that of Sabadell, Josep Oiu, were among the audience that attended to the Sánchez conference. The two bank managers have greeted themselves and Torres has made brief statements where he has pointed out that the operation they are trying to over the Sabadell “is a growth project to create a stronger and better prepared bank for the future” and “leads to benefits for all” in Catalonia, Spain and Europe, he said.
Carlos Torres has spoken of “maximum respect for decisions” after the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced his intentions to collect opinions before putting the matter on the Executive’s table. Josep Oliu has been much more concise and has simply aimed at pointing out that it is always “positive” to wonder the important issues.
On the details, knowledgeable sources of the process point out that it will be the Ministry of Economy who has to specify them in the next few days. Minister Carlos Corps plans to attend the Cercle days on Tuesday.
The Executive Vice President of the European Commission (CE) for the clean, fair and competitive transition, Teresa Ribera, has also referred to the OPA. In an act at the Col·legi of Publicistes de Catalunya, which he has attended before going to the Cercle Conference, he recalled that who operates and manages the national markets are the authorities of each country, so the purchase operation between banking entities is not “its competition,” he informs Màrius Lamor.
La semana pasada, tras la CNMC de dar el visto bueno al BBVA para que siga adelante con la operación, que crearía el segundo mayor banco de España, fue la ministra Yolanda Díaz la primera en salir en defensa del Banco Sabadell, apelando al impacto que va a tener para los trabajadores, 5.000 despidos posibles, a la vez que tildaba de “error mayúsculo” hacer este movimiento en contra de todo el tejido económico, social, cultural, sindical catalán. Until today, President Sánchez had only referred to the fact that territorial rebalancing is an important element and had stressed that when addressing this merger process, “social cohesion and territorial cohesion” should be taken into account.
Before the President of the Government arrived at the Palau de Congresos, the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, has attended the press and has sent a direct message to Sánchez, asking that “Pararalize” the BBVA OPA on Banco Sabadell by considering that it will mean the loss of 70,000 million euros in credits to the Spanish productive fabric. The business leader has urged the Executive to take this step “for strategic reasons and of general and territorial interest” taking into account reasons for defense of competition, after the Catalan employer has developed a last minute study that figure in this amount the reduction of the credit associated with the operation.
Speaking to journalists, Sánchez Llibre has indicated that the resolution of the CNMC on the OPA, which gives green to the operation although it imposes conditions, is “insufficient, disappointing, inappropriate and precipitous.”
