Latest news with #CarlosTorresVila
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
BBVA to invest $5.2 billion in Mexico through 2030
MEXICO CITY, May 27 (Reuters) - Spanish bank BBVA ( opens new tab plans to invest more than 100 billion pesos ($5.19 billion) in Mexico through 2030, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The investment is part of BBVA's long-term bet on the Latin American nation, the firm added. "The 100 billion pesos that we are announcing is not only an investment," BBVA chair Carlos Torres Vila said in the announcement. "It's a commitment to the more than 30 million customers we serve in the country." BBVA added that it was looking to further strengthen its corporate banking presence in the nation and boost customer service. ($1 = 19.2575 Mexican pesos)
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
BBVA to invest $5.2 billion in Mexico through 2030
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Spanish bank BBVA plans to invest more than 100 billion pesos ($5.19 billion) in Mexico through 2030, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The investment is part of BBVA's long-term bet on the Latin American nation, the firm added. "The 100 billion pesos that we are announcing is not only an investment," BBVA chair Carlos Torres Vila said in the announcement. "It's a commitment to the more than 30 million customers we serve in the country." BBVA added that it was looking to further strengthen its corporate banking presence in the nation and boost customer service. ($1 = 19.2575 Mexican pesos) Sign in to access your portfolio
CNBC
01-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Spain's antitrust body clears BBVA-Sabadell takeover, awaits government
Spain's competition watchdog CNMC approved on Wednesday the proposed acquisition of Banco Sabadell by its larger rival BBVA, though the combined lender will have to accept several remedies in its retail banking arm if the long-running hostile takeover bid clears the remaining hurdles. The deal, valued at around 12 billion euros ($13.59 billion) when it turned hostile last May, is opposed by the Spanish government. An economy ministry spokesperson said it would pore over the CNMC report once it has received it. The deal also has to be authorized by the stock market supervisor CNMV before the bid can be effectively launched. BBVA wants to create the second-biggest bank in Spain by credit volume after Caixabank, which would also have over 1 trillion euros ($1.13 trillion) in total assets. The CNMC said the commitments presented by BBVA to address competition issues in the affected markets were "adequate, sufficient and proportionate." In a statement, BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila said that the remedies that "we assume favor financial inclusion, territorial cohesion, credit for SMEs and the self-employed, and preserve competitiveness, especially in places where Banco Sabadell has a greater presence, such as Catalonia." Sabadell countered that the methodology used by the CNMC was not "appropriate" to analyze the implications that the combination of both banks would have on SMEs and clients. The CNMC also concluded that the deal posed a threat to effective competition in certain areas of the retail banking and payment services market, where the merged entity exceeds a 30% combined market share. BBVA committed to divest certain levels of stakes in payment processing companies (Redsys, Sistema de Tarjetas y Medios de Pago, Bizum and Servired) as mandated by these companies' bylaws. To address concerns, BBVA said it would not close branches where there is no other branch within 300 meters (0.19 miles), in postal codes with a per capita income below 10,000 euros and where there are fewer than three competitors. It also vowed not to leave behind any municipality in which there are fewer than three competitors. As for SMEs and the self-employed, BBVA also committed to maintain working capital lines for three years, extendable by two more years, for all SMEs working with Sabadell. Under Spanish law, the government cannot stop a bid from being made, but it has the final word on whether a merger goes ahead. Competition legislation limits the government's scope for intervention but since the antitrust regulator has set remedies in its review, Spain's economy ministry has now 15 business days to take the deal to a cabinet meeting. The government then has a month to oppose it, known unofficially as a "phase 3 review."
Bloomberg
30-01-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
BBVA Chair on Sabadell Merger, Mexico Tariffs
Despite tariff threats on Mexico, "the US needs Mexico for competitiveness", leading to "high appetite for investing in Mexico" says Carlos Torres Vila, BBVA Chair. Meanwhile, on his company's ongoing attempt acquire Sabadell, Vila is "extremely confident" that the deal will go through as it is now "much closer to completion", pending the decision of the Spanish competition authority. Carlos speaks to Anna Edwards, Kriti Gupta, and Guy Johnson on 'Bloomberg: The Opening Trade'. (Source: Bloomberg)
Reuters
30-01-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Hostile EU bank M&A raises risk of winner's curse
LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Launching an unwelcome takeover of a rival bank used to be a sign of dangerous excess. These days, it seems to be the most logical option available to would-be acquirers. Three bids and one possible approach are currently on the table in Europe, potentially worth almost 60 billion euros in total, none of which are wanted by the targets. The deals are nothing like the hubristic hostile acquisitions of old, but there's still a risk that the aggressors will suffer from the winner's curse. The key players in the current round of European bank M&A are Carlos Torres Vila, chair of 63-billion-euro Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) ( opens new tab, and Andrea Orcel, the CEO of 69-billion-euro Italian lender UniCredit ( opens new tab. Torres last May launched a 12-billion-euro offer for smaller Spanish rival Banco de Sabadell ( opens new tab. Later in the year, Orcel snapped up almost 30% of Germany's 22-billion-euro Commerzbank ( opens new tab, partly through derivatives, and made it known that he favours a full acquisition if local authorities agree. In November, the former M&A adviser then offered 10 billion euros for local rival Banco BPM ( opens new tab, which in turn helped trigger Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena's (MPS) ( opens new tab 13-billion-euro swoop on Italy's Mediobanca ( opens new tab last Friday. In all four cases, the banks subject to the takeover interest have either formally rejected an offer or made it abundantly clear that they're not interested, implying that the bidders may have to go straight to the targets' shareholders to get what they want. In one sense, it's surprising that unfriendly approaches have reappeared, having all but vanished following the 2008 financial crisis. The history since the 1980s is grim. LSEG's M&A database lists 24 hostile and unsolicited $1 billion-plus deals attempted by European banks, of which only five closed, for a 21% completion rate. That compares with a 75% completion rate for the wider universe of bank deals in the region, according to Breakingviews calculations. And many of the transactions that got over the line were ultimately disasters, most notably the 2007 Royal Bank of Scotland-led 71-billion-euro carve-up of Dutch group ABN Amro, which resulted in bailouts for several members of the acquiring consortium. Orcel, ironically, helped to orchestrate that deal as an M&A banker at Merrill Lynch. Even before that, BNP's simultaneous 1999 hostile offers for Paribas and Société Générale led to the 'Trichet doctrine', named after the then-governor of the Banque de France Jean-Claude Trichet, who indicated that hostile M&A involving Gallic lenders was a no-no following what became a messy affair. The recent uptick in unwelcome M&A therefore requires some explaining. It helps to start with the necessary conditions for hostile M&A: a determined bidder and a target board with the confidence to say no. Both became present, rather suddenly, in recent years for European banks. Rising interest rates boosted returns on equity, valuation multiples and animal spirits across the sector. By 2024, would-be acquirers found themselves with excess equity capital and a relatively rich acquisition currency for the first time in many years. Since share buybacks make less sense with higher valuations, M&A rose to the top of the agenda. Yet the same forces also made perennial underperformers – like Sabadell, BPM and Commerzbank – more viable standalone players, empowering their boards to reject takeover interest. If Orcel and Torres had laid down formal bids a few years ago, when smaller lenders' share prices and returns were much lower, it's harder to imagine much of a fightback. In mid-2022, for example, just a quarter of the current members of the EURO STOXX Banks Index had a consensus 12-month-forward return on tangible equity estimate that exceeded 10% – a typical rule of thumb for the sector's cost of equity. Now, 85% of the same group are on track to exceed that key profitability threshold, according to Breakingviews calculations using analyst forecasts gathered by LSEG. In other words, the very factors that encouraged the acquirers also gave the targets reasons to resist, making unwelcome or downright hostile approaches the only viable option. Orcel, for example, didn't bother to negotiate with BPM's board before bidding in November because of the likely intransigence, a person familiar with the matter told Breakingviews. Possible future aggressors, like 51-billion-euro Dutch bank ING ( opens new tab or 75-billion-euro Italian giant Intesa Sanpaolo ( opens new tab, might find themselves in a similar situation. The most pressing questions now are whether any of the current possible deals will close, and whether the buyers' shareholders should even want that to happen. Politics and regulatory approvals will play a large role, but so will price. Visible Alpha data shows that analysts expect Sabadell, Commerz, BPM and Mediobanca to all clear a 10% return on tangible equity in 2026 and 2027, implying that investors should only accept an offer that comfortably exceeds tangible book value, after factoring in a control premium. The live value of UniCredit's BPM bid and BBVA's Sabadell offer are currently roughly in line with tangible book value, implying that they might need to raise. The same may be true if MPS wants to clinch Mediobanca, whose shares are now trading 11% above the current value of last week's proposal. That presents a dilemma for Orcel, Torres and MPS's Luigi Lovaglio. Newly confident target banks, and their relatively bullish investors, can hold out for a higher offer. That may explain the bidders' own share-price moves. MPS stock has crashed by more than a tenth since last Thursday. And while there's no evidence of a lasting M&A penalty in the shares of BBVA and UniCredit, nor are they getting any obvious credit for the promised bumper cost savings. The performance of the Italian lender, for example, has roughly matched Intesa's since the mid-November BPM offer. That suggests investors are expecting one of two things: either the hostile deals won't complete at all, or the acquirers will end up paying away all the possible benefits to the target. Follow @Breakingviews, opens new tab on X CONTEXT NEWS Italy's Mediobanca on Jan. 28 rejected a takeover offer by state-backed rival Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), saying a tie-up would be detrimental to its shareholders because it lacked any strategic and financial rationale. MPS on Jan. 24 announced a 13.3-billion-euro offer for Mediobanca. The bidder's shares closed at 6.21 euros on Jan. 28, which was 11% below their Jan. 23 level. For more insights like these, click here, opens new tab to try Breakingviews for free.
