Spain: Abanca’s new attempt to buy Liberbank

Spanish bank Abanca, owned by businessman Carlos Escotet, will once again seek to acquire its rival Liberbank in its quest to enter the list of the six largest banks in Spain. The success of Abanca will depend on negotiations currently held by Liberbank with rival Unicaja, hoping that these will be unsuccessful.

Abanca has a business plan and financing for the purchase, which has already been communicated to the Bank of Spain for its unofficial evaluation. Just a week ago, Abanca attempted an aggressive takeover of Liberbank over less than 4 days, although the operation did not ultimately materialize.

Sources at Liberbank hold that all conversations with Abanca are speculation. Abanca would be designing its own financing plan after having managed to free up to 31% of its capital to negotiate a merger. Both parties have also committed to perform ‘due diligence’ and exchange relevant information.