Banco Sabadell defends its future alone before shareholders and anticipates the distribution of more than 20 cents per share per year

Banco Sabadell has meeting with its shareholders in Sant Cugat del Vallèswhich serves as the bank’s operational center, to reaffirm its solo growth plans. Two months after the failure of BBVA’s takeover bid, the Catalan group held a meeting with investors to whom it ruled out undertaking any merger with a national bank. Thus burying the speculations that pointed towards entities like Unicaja.

“We don’t see interest on our part or on the other side. Mergers between medium-sized banks may make sense in terms of cost synergies, but for This must also be wanted and agreed upon.”explained the president, Josep Oliu. The manager thus removes any possibility of consolidation either in Spain or in Europe, especially after the sale of its British subsidiary, TSB, to Banco Santander. “If we had the intention of going shopping, we wouldn’t we would allocate an extraordinary dividend to the shareholders”, has said. Sabadell plans to distribute a payment of 0.5 euros per share once this transaction closes, scheduled for next spring.

In this sense, Oliu has focused part of his intervention on remuneration to the shareholder, which has been one of the main assets when arguing its rejection of the takeover bid, while at the same time distributing an annual dividend per share of at least 20 cents on a “recurring basis” starting in 2026. The amount includes both cash and buybacks. Oliu has been accompanied by the group’s CEO, César González-Bueno, who has reiterated some of the perspectives for the coming years, within the framework of its new 2025-2027 strategic plan.

Specifically, he explained that his roadmap is based on four key elements. Among them is being focused on Spainone of the fastest growing economies in the eurozone; the orientation to grow the business slightly above that of competitors with a “prudent” advance in market share; a solid track record of execution and “strong” capital generation that allows “attractive shareholder remuneration.”

It should be remembered that the Next December 29 is scheduled the distribution of 0.07 euros per share as an interim dividend after modifying the calendar by which payments will be made in three payments instead of two. Likewise, they have appealed to the bank’s revaluation potential, which reaches 6%, according to the ‘Bloomberg’ panel of experts, after a ‘rally’ of 78% so far this year. At the moment it is the only one of the six large banks in the Ibex 35 without any sell recommendation. Everyone advises buy or hold.

Oliu has taken advantage of the trajectory experienced by Sabadell on the stock market, which in ten sessions he managed to recover the 5% drop registered after the failed plan of Carlos Torres, which barely added 25% of the support of the shareholder base. “The result exceeded our estimate”he admitted. Among the investors who did openly support the potential union was the Mexican businessman David Martínez, the group’s third largest shareholder – the maximum at an individual level – with 3.8% of the capital.

This percentage gave him the right to occupy a seat on the board of directors, which he left a few weeks ago due to the friction generated by his open support for it. However, it is unknown if it plans to get rid of its share package.