The protagonists of Catalan politics took time out of the electoral campaign yesterday to evaluate the hostile public offer for the acquisition of shares (offer) that BBVA has launched on Banco Sabadell. Despite the ideological differences, the parties yesterday showed a unanimous rejection of the operation. Surely the most forceful was the Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas, who, in addition, announced that she has asked the European Commission to prevent the operation to guarantee banking competition.
Mas stated in a press conference that a letter has been sent to the European Vice President of Competition, Margrethe Vestager, to “prevent the operation from becoming a reality”. Similarly, a letter has also been sent to the president of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), Cani Fernández.
The Minister explained that there is “total opposition” in the Government because in Catalonia there is already a high concentration of banks with an oligopoly situation. “If the operation goes ahead, the level of banking concentration would be the highest in Europe”, he said. The head of Economy recalled the intervention this week by the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, in which he pointed out the concentration problems of the Spanish market. “Many times the Bank of Spain has acted as a bank employer instead of defending the interests of users. We hope that the change in discourse will be maintained and strengthened”, he said.
In his opinion, the operation would be very negative for the Catalan market. “There would be a loss of economic power, competition and employment”, he said. The minister regretted that citizens are already suffering from the lack of competition between banks with very low returns on deposits compared to the rest of Europe. In addition, he stated that companies would be greatly harmed by the difficulties in accessing credit.
A few hours earlier, the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, rejected the operation. “At the moment, the level of banking concentration is a problem for the economy. We advocate that there be greater competition, and that if entities must merge to gain weight, they should be mergers on a European scale”, he assured.
His counterpart in the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, was “absolutely against” the offer. The Valencian president said that BBVA’s plan goes “against the province of Alicante, against the Valencian Community, against the consumer, it makes no sense, it contributes absolutely nothing and is part of not only a fund against which we have already demonstrated, but also in absolutely superb and intolerable ways”.
For his part, the candidate of the PSC, Salvador Illa, emphasized that “all of Catalonia is against this deal, it is not good for anyone, neither for the citizens nor for the workers”. “The manners are bad, and the background, too. It does not benefit the competition at all”, he added.
The former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont (Junts), assured in a message to X that “there has been a strategy for some time to liquidate Catalan banking activity, which harms users and harms the country”, for the which calls to respond to the opa “with all the force, all the right and all the reason”. In a later meeting, he speculated about the involvement of the central government in the operation.
In the PP, the candidate Alejandro Fernández expressed in a message on the same social network that he is “hugely” concerned that it “negatively affects Catalan SMEs and free competition”. Both the commons and the CUP showed their rejection of the operation. For its part, Vox was suspicious of the operation.
