Spain's antitrust body set to approve BBVA takeover of Sabadell with remedies, sources say

By Jesús Aguado

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's competition watchdog CNMC is set to approve BBVA's proposed acquisition of rival Sabadell as early as next week, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, potentially clearing another hurdle in the long-running hostile takeover bid.

Under the terms of the approval, BBVA will have to make some commitments, or so-called remedies that a company acquiring another agrees to take to ease the impact of a merger on the competitors, customers and suppliers, but these are not expected to be onerous, one of the sources said on Thursday.

BBVA, which shocked Spain last May when it turned hostile in its pursuit of Sabadell with a more than 12 billion euros ($13.65 billion) bid at the time, wants to create a bank with over 1 trillion euros in total assets to help it gain scale and better cope with a lower interest rate environment.

The acquisition, which is opposed by the Spanish government, also has to be authorised by Spain's stock market supervisor CNMV. Madrid cannot stop a bid but can block a full merger between the banks.

"If there had been no indication that it would be approved with commitments, we would not have reached this stage," one of the sources said, referring to the deal having advanced to a phase 2 review, without detailing the remedies. The formal approval needs to be taken by the Chamber of Competition of the CNMC that is set to meet next week.

A third person said that the authorisation process could take until early May in order not to clash with banks' earnings.

In early April, BBVA submitted to the CNMC a fifth set of proposals in a document seen by Reuters that is part of an in-depth phase two review to address concerns specifically related to lending for small and mid-sized lending (SME).

The latest proposals, which according to one of the sources could still be further modified, include maintaining, for a minimum of three years, the current conditions of all products for self-employed and SME clients in areas where both banks would hold a dominant market position.

BBVA extended to three years from 18 months the preservation of all working capital lines for all Sabadell SME clients, and also pledged to maintain the volume of credit for SMEs that have 100% of their financing with BBVA and/or Sabadell.

Sabadell calls BBVA's proposed remedies insufficient and believes structural changes, such as asset disposals, are necessary.

When the CNMC took the review to a longer phase 2 analysis, it said the Catalonia and Valencia regions were problematic as they include provinces where the combined market share of BBVA and Sabadell for retail banking products exceeds 30%.

($1 = 0.8794 euros)

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado, editing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Susan Fenton)