BBVA Seeks Merger Talks With Sabadell — Update

By Elena Vardon

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria is pursuing merger talks with smaller peer Banco de Sabadell, seeking another shot at a Spanish banking tie-up that fell apart in 2020.

Spanish lender BBVA said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that its board has approached Sabadell's chair to explore a combination, and that it has appointed advisors.

Sabadell separately said it received a merger proposal from BBVA that its board will analyze. The bank had earlier said it hadn't started talks or negotiations.

A merger would form a bank with combined value of almost 73 billion euros ($78.27 billion). BBVA's market capitalization stood at EUR63.5 billion as of Monday's close, while Sabadell's was EUR9.4 billion, according to FactSet data.

The banks have considered a merger before. In November 2020, talks were called off due to disagreements over pricing a couple of weeks after they were disclosed.

At 1246 GMT, Sabadell shares traded 6.4% higher at EUR1.85 while BBVA fell 6.8% to EUR10.16.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2024 09:05 ET (13:05 GMT)

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