Sabadell shareholders accuse BBVA of worsening its bid with modified offer

Shareholders of Spanish bank Banco Sabadell have accused its larger peer BBVA of “worsening” the takeover offer by announcing a modification to the original bid offer, undervaluing the bank further.

During a meeting of about 300 shareholders of Banco Sebadell at the bank’s headquarters in San Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona), president Josep Oliu pointed out that these adjustments are “neutral” and it only helped to “worsen” the initial offer.

Oliu also said the premium offer at Sabadell’s current prices does not come to more than 3 per cent.

BBVA on Tuesday announced a modified offer for Banco Sabadell, under which BBVA will give one newly issued ordinary share for 5.0196 ordinary shares of Sabadell and euro 0.29 in cash.

In a stock exchange filing on Tuesday, BBVA said the revised offer takes into account dividend payout by both lenders in order to keep the economic terms of the takeover offer intact.

BBVA has announced a dividend of 0.29 euro per share, or a total of 1.7 billion euros, to its existing shareholders, which is 81 per cent more than it paid last year. Shareholders will receive the payout on 10 October, it added.

Sabadell on Tuesday made an interim dividend payment of 0.08 euros against 2024 earnings, according to the filing.

BBVA launched a more than 12 billion euro ($13.4 billion) bid for all of Sabadell's shares in April.