(Reuters) -GQG Partners, one of the largest shareholders of Spanish bank BBVA, has sold its stake following the bank’s decision to launch a hostile bid for domestic rival Banco Sabadell, the Financial Times reported on Sunday .
GQG had decided to sell by July after telling BBVA’s management team that it believed the bid for Sabadell would be too time-consuming and distracting, while also diluting its exposure to emerging markets, the FT report said .
Neither GQG, BBVA nor Sabadell immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment.
BBVA presented a 12.23 billion euro ($13.29 billion) takeover bid for its smaller rival in April, which turned hostile in May and took the offer directly to Sabadell shareholders after the target’s board previously rejected the proposal on the same terms had rejected.
Although the Spanish government is against the agreement, the European Central Bank gave the agreement the green light in September.
However, the takeover still needs to be approved by Spanish stockbroker CNMV, which said this month it would analyze a competitive assessment of the bid before deciding when it could give the green light.
The deal has also not been approved by Spain’s antitrust watchdog CNMC, and a review could take well into the first quarter of 2025 if competition authorities require a more in-depth analysis.
Under Spanish law, the government cannot stop a bid, but it does have the final say on whether a merger goes ahead. Both the CNMV and CNMC must approve the deal before it goes through.
($1 = 0.9204 euros)
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard and Alison Williams)
