The loss of a bank with operational headquarters in Catalonia and specialized in SMEs worries the Generalitat, businessmen and unions. The Foment employers’ association, chaired by Josep Sánchez Llibre, said yesterday that the operation “we view it with a lot of skepticism because it is still a takeover bid without paying cash.” The organization added that, in addition, with the integration of the two entities “the effectiveness of a bank very close to companies and very efficient that has a methodology that we doubt can be maintained after the union would be lost.” Foment said that “Sabadell’s strategic plan still has a long way to go.”
Although Sabadell has not yet said anything officially (it is expected to do so on Monday), sources in the sector assure that the entity chaired by Josep Oliu sees the offer as low and unattractive. The same sources add that the operation is an initiative of BBVA and that it has not been agreed with the entity born in Sabadell either in form or content.
Sabadell is today the only Spanish financial entity that almost exclusively maintains its central services in Catalonia after CaixaBank absorbed Bankia and established two headquarters in Barcelona and Madrid. And although BBVA in its offer commits to maintaining two operational headquarters (BBVA’s Sant Cugat del Sabadell and Las Tablas, in Madrid), the magnitude of both makes an equitable distribution difficult. The unions estimate that the workforce at BBVA’s operational headquarters (6,000 workers) triples the number of workers at Sabadell (1,867). Sabadell’s headquarters have been in Alicante since 2017 and BBVA’s has been in Bilbao.
The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, was very eloquent yesterday: “We need more financial entities, and not less.” The president clarified, however, that he will maintain “discretion” in this operation and recalled that the entities can make their decisions “freely.” Union sources warn of the loss of competition for companies and individuals.
Operations such as BBVA’s offer for Sabadell always generate job losses. Some jobs that in many cases are qualified and with high salaries. Banking is one of the sectors that maintains the highest salaries in the labor market. BBVA’s global workforce in Spain is 27,735 people, while Sabadell’s is 12,909 people. Taking into account the figures that were handled in the last major merger (that of CaixaBank and Bankia), those affected could be 15% of the total. If this percentage is met, the workforce cut would be around 5,900 people.
The final figure would obviously depend on the structure that BBVA designs in the future. In the letter sent yesterday to the Sabadell council and the CNMV, the entity only commits to ensuring that the impact does not fall exclusively on the shoulders of the workers of the absorbed bank. Union sources that have already negotiated several processes of integration of banking entities remember that normally the acquired entity is slimmed down first and then the one that buys.
Mario Rifaterra, general secretary of CC.OO. Banc Sabadell explained yesterday that “after the record results of the entities, the staff cannot pay for the merger process. We demand a guarantee of employment, voluntary departures in case of surplus.” Tesifón Sánchez, from UGT BBVA, said that “we are concerned about the loss of jobs due to the closure of offices and the quality of the financial service to citizens, which is already very damaged.”
That of Sabadell would be BBVA’s third major acquisition in Catalonia, which would have left it with the entire financial sector of the community except Caixa Laietana, Caixa Girona and obviously CaixaBank. And although in his letter he says that he could keep the brand, the accumulated experience is that it is always lost. In terms of governance, the vice presidency that BBVA has offered to Sabadell could fall to president Josep Oliu, as was already speculated with the first offer, in 2020.
