Link Securities | BBVA (BBVA) Chairman Carlos Torres says that what sets them apart from other banks is growth and anticipates that excess capital could be distributed through an extraordinary dividend, according to the newspaper Expansión.‘The sale of the US subsidiary was the right decision and has yielded great results. It allowed us to strengthen our position in other markets and reward shareholders,’ said BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres at the press conference to present the 2025 results. Torres, who declined to comment specifically on Santander’s (SAN) purchase of Webster Bank, described how the current scenario and the context in which BBVA’s exit from the United States took place in 2020 are different. ‘The search for scale continues to make sense in any market,’ he said. Torres explained that before agreeing to sell its US subsidiary to PNC for more than €10 billion, the bank was analysing the purchase of competitors in the United States, but given the multiples presented by the sector at the time (down in Spain and up in the United States), ‘it did not make sense to dilute our shareholders.’
‘As we were unable to achieve the right scale, we sold at significant multiples. I am not judging Santander’s transaction, but I believe that we made the right decision and it has paid off. And that is compatible with Santander having executed the transaction at significant multiples,’ he said. In contrast to the corporate transactions that Torres has ruled out, the banker highlighted that BBVA is able to achieve scale organically in all its markets, as ‘we are growing faster than our competitors.’
