BBVA will maintain control of the new superbank that will result from the merger between the Basque entity and Sabadell. The managers of both groups are making progress in the integration negotiations and there is already an agreement for the distribution of charges in the governance of the new group, in the absence of these being validated by the European Central Bank (ECB).
BBVA, higher by assets and market capitalization, will retain the presidency and the position of CEO, in the hands of Carlos Torres and the turkish Onur Gen, respectively.
For his part, the current president of Sabadell, Josep Oliu, will become the non-executive vice president of the financial group and its current number 2, Jaime Guardiola, It will have a newly created position aimed at facilitating the integration of the business units of the two entities.
Sources familiar with the negotiation explain that Oliu and Guardiola will play an important role in maintaining the bank’s Catalan status due to their institutional presence in the region. However, in both cases it is assumed that this period is transitory. In Oliu’s case because, at 73 years old, is approaching the maximum limit of 75 set by the bank to have a seat on its board of directors.
What is not yet clear is the number of seats that the maximum control body of the new bank will have. Currently, the BBVA board has 15 armchairs, to which should be added at least that of Oliu. No director of the ‘blue bank’ has an upcoming renewal date, since many of them entered new ones a couple of years ago and others renewed when Torres undertook the remodeling of the council after the Francisco González era.
The integration of both groups would give rise to the second largest bank in the Spanish market by volume of assets, only behind the integration also underway of CaixaBank and Bankia. Between the two entities, they will control more than half of the credits and deposits in the country.
The two mergers will be joined in the next few days by the integration of Unicaja and Liberbank, two medium-sized banks that will create the fourth largest entity in the country behind Santander. The two entities are in the final phase of their negotiations and their advice could give the final ‘green light’ in the next few days.
Negotiation for adjustment is resumed
The management of Banco Sabadell and the unions will resume negotiations on the 1,800 employee cutbacks foreseen by the Bank in Spain, sources familiar with the negotiating calendar have explained to Efe.
CCOO, the bank’s first union, asked last week to stop contacts for a few days after it was revealed that BBVA and Sabadell were proposing to merge, a pause in the negotiations that the Sabadell management accepted.
At the last negotiating meeting, on November 12, Banco Sabadell presented a new proposal to the committee with some improvements in the economic conditions of early retirements and incentives to leave. reduce the workforce by 1,800 people, an offer that the unions rejected as “insufficient”.
The bank put on the table early retirement with 72% of the annual salary and the signing of a special agreement with an annual update of 1%.
This staff cut is additional to which can be reached if both entities finally agree to integrate.
The fact is that the integration between Sabadell and BBVA would entail overlaps throughout Spain, but especially in communities such as Catalonia, where Sabadell has 6,977 employees and BBVA a total of 5,240, according to official data from both entities.
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