Abanca resigns to launch its takeover bid on Liberbank after five days of threats

Abanca resigns to launch its takeover bid on Liberbank after five days of threats

It takes this decision after the notice of the CNMV, where they believe that it has not acted "in good faith" or with "seriousness" in its corporate movements

   Abanca has written the last chapter of a series of stories that had led him to show his intention to take control of Liberbank. After five days of press releases, relevant events and leaks, the corporation chaired by Juan Carlos Escotet has renounced its interest in promoting the possible corporate operation with Liberbank and, consequently, not making any public takeover bid (OPA), as reported this morning to the CNMV.

  The entity, which brings together the former banking business of Novacaixagalicia -from the merger of Caixa Galicia and Caixanova-, has ruled on its final decision just 24 hours after the CNMV urged him to clarify what he would do in a maximum period of ten days. Not a single one has elapsed so that the operation has completely unraveled. Abanca now argues that it is not possible to launch the OPA because it can not access the documentation to see the status of Liberbank accounts.

Abanca notes that "it is not possible" to propose a purchase offer in the firm because its intention to do so was "based on public information" of the entity that integrates the old boxes of Asturias, Cantabria and Extremadura. For the Galician entity it was "necessary to carry out a confirmatory review ('due diligence') of certain aspects relating to Liberbank ' before launching the tender offer. It considers that it is "a habitual practice" among companies quoted in this type of movement.

At this time, the shares of Liberbank lose 9% on the stock exchange and trade at 0.42 euros. This price is, in any case, 8% higher than the one it had last Thursday, before the events began to happen regarding the possible OPA. The next day, their titles were revalued by 20%. All these movements have allowed Liberbank to gain a certain position in the stock market after Abanca showed interest in its business. In the case of Unicaja, it loses 2.6% and falls to 0.99 euros. In the last three working sessions, it has lost almost 3% of its capitalization.

However, the CNMV warned yesterday to the corporation that it had to raise the OPA, or discard it, within 10 days without having to have access to that internal documentation of Liberbank. The president of the stock exchange supervisor, Santiago Albella, clarified this morning that they would have been in favor of Liberbank providing this information of their own, provided that the offer was "planned seriously and in good faith", something that, in their opinion, has not happened in this case. Yesterday, Albella indicated that the communication from Abanca last Friday, which only showed his willingness to buy Liberbank, but conditioning him to know his accounts before, "did not respond to a normal pattern." "The first news should have been the announcement of the offer," he said, as established by current legislation. In any case, Albella has clarified that they were not opposed to Liberbank offering that information, provided it had been done under normal circumstances.

Given this situation, and after the Liberbank's own council, led by Manuel Menéndez, confirmed yesterday that they keep their road map to integrate with Unicaja , as they had announced in December, the Abanca operation has collapsed. Its controlling shareholder has decided "to renounce its interest in promoting the possible operation".

Suspicion has reigned throughout the process since last Friday information from 'Expansion' anticipated the intention of the Galician entity. Last Friday, Abanca sent a letter to the CNMV that it had sent to the Liberbank board in which it had held talks with the private shareholders of the entity (the Oceanwood fund, Fernando Masaveu or Norges Bank, among others) after which it had raised a "strong interest" in "promoting" a purchase that he considered "beneficial" for both parties.

It put on the table 0.56 euros for each Liberbank title, with a premium of 20% compared to the close of the action last Thursday, valuing the company at about 1,700 million euros . In addition, it offered the foundations of the savings banks of Asturias, Cantabria and Extremadura - the shareholders from the former original entities of the group - to join the board of the new Abanca so that they "remain in the capital with representation in the governing bodies" Of the entity.

However, from the first moment, L iberbank insisted that it only had on the table a possible integration with Unicaja , in which they had been working for months, and whose route continued forward. Yesterday, the group came to the fore to "confirm" that "it continues working on the strategic operation" communicated to the CNVM in mid-December to integrate with Unicaja.

Sources close to both entities confirm to this newspaper that the executives of Liberbank and Unicaja are continuing with the "roadmap" established since the end of last year. They prefer not to talk about a pre-established calendar because they have been analyzing the closing data for the 2018 financial year , which includes the annual accounts of both groups. If the operation goes ahead, what would be the sixth Spanish bank by volume of assets would be generated, with almost 96,731 million euros -with data from the fourth quarter of 2018-, according to the records of its latest results.