Sabadell gets expressions of interest for British unit TSB

By Jesús Aguado

(Reuters) -Spain's Sabadell on Monday said it had received preliminary non-binding expressions of interest for its British unit TSB and will assess any potential binding offer it may receive.

The Financial Times reported earlier that the Spanish lender was considering selling TSB, in an effort to counter the hostile takeover bid from its domestic competitor, BBVA, citing people familiar with the matter.

The FT said that Sabadell was working with advisers to examine offloading the British high street unit and had been in contact with potential bidders, according to people familiar with the matter.

In its statement, Sabadell said that "naturally, any transaction would be subject to the satisfaction of all legal obligations" without identifying potential bidders or any details of the valuation.

In Spain, legislation requires the governing bodies of a company targeted in a takeover bid to remain passive and request shareholder approval before promoting or taking any action that might prevent an acquisition from succeeding.

BBVA's offer for Sabadell, initially valued at 12.28 billion euros ($14.22 billion), turned hostile in May 2024 after it was rejected by Sabadell's board.

Two of the people cited by the FT report said that documents relating to a sale of TSB had been circulated to potential bidders in recent weeks, with one adding that interested parties had been granted access to a limited due diligence process.

Another person said that Sabadell had kicked off the process after it received unsolicited interest in TSB from multiple parties. Interested bidders were expected to submit offers this month, the people added, according to the FT.

Returning at least some of the proceeds of a sale to shareholders could help keep them onside amid the BBVA saga, one of the sources told the FT.

Sabadell has put previous plans to sell TSB on hold until it turns around the British bank. In November 2020, Sabadell and BBVA called off merger talks as they did not agree on the terms, including the price tag.

Differences between BBVA and Sabadell over the value of TSB, which was bought by Sabadell in 2015 for 1.7 billion pounds ($2.31 billion) were partly to blame for the talks collapsing, a source with direct knowledge said at the time.

($1 = 0.8637 euros)

($1 = 0.7356 pounds)

(Reporting by Dheeraj Kumar in Bengaluru and Jesús Aguado in Madrid; Editing by Alan Barona, David Latona, Alison Williams and Alistair Bell)