Torres pressures businessmen not to appear before CNMC over takeover bid
BBVA President Carlos Torres is fully prepared to defend the takeover of Banco Sabadell and is trying to reassure businessmen that it will not damage their creditworthiness. The banker calls on representatives of associations seeking to promote meetings to personally guarantee them that they will not suffer a loss of funding thanks to the various measures that BBVA plans to implement after the opening of the calendar, so that they can oppose the operation before the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) that confirmed elEconomista.es.
Torres had already launched a busy program shortly after filing the takeover bid to close positions. primarily with Catalan and Valencian businessmenwho from the very beginning were against the deal for fear of incurring losses in their financing – smaller and more expensive -. Catalonia is the origin of Sabadell and Valencia for the defunct CAM, an integrated group, and the regions where the merger will have the greatest impact on the business, subsidiaries and staff.
In a “brief note” issued to justify the start of a thorough review (“Phase II”), the CNMC admitted that it could not rule out that the merger of both banks was harmful to loans, especially to SMEs, as it identified different provinces. .
The epicenter of his relational activity are the territories that suffered the greatest initial rejection – Catalonia and Valencia. And although with different tones of belligerence – Pimek, for example, is very critical and Promotion remains more wary – so far it has failed to get any organization to come out publicly in favor of its cause. One of the next attacks will take place in the days of the economy of S’Agaro, a traditionally socialist fiefdom, in which Peio Belausteguigoitia, regional manager of BBVA in Spain, will take part, with no representation of Banco Sabadell scheduled.
SMEs and securing their financing are at the center of the battle between BBVA and Sabadell to make or break the operation. Bank Vallesano estimates that 40% of SMEs would face problems if the Catalan enterprise disappeared, because one of the large suppliers would disappear, and these are companies that have to deal with three to five banks.
BBVA has limited the overlap of companies served by both banks to 1.5%, excluding those whose list of companies is reduced below these 3-5 providers. To assure competitors that they would not run into funding problems and would receive Phase I approval, they put forward various commitments that the CNMC found insufficient or unconvincing.
They have already appeared before the CNMC and defended their interests. Treboll’s promotionPimec, the Confederation of Businessmen of Galicia (CEG), the employers’ association of Pontevedra (Aempe) and Lugo (CEL) followed in Sabadell’s footsteps. The Catalan chambers of commerce have not done this for the moment and, if everything goes according to plan, they should do so within this week, as soon as the necessary organizations have finished meeting to make a decision of this magnitude.
Among the commitments presented by BBVA to CNMC are the maintenance of working capital lines (loans for up to one year) that Sabadell provides to companies for 18 months, barring financial deterioration; And all loans to SMEs that have no other provider other than both banks for a period of one and a half years. In municipalities with fewer than four businesses, this will ensure that new financing will be provided at prices no higher than those established nationally and will preserve all company branches.
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