BBVA bank amends Sabadell offer

Going one better The BBVA bank, currently immersed in a hostile takeover of Banco Sabadell, amended its offer to shareholders.

The €12 billion bid was announced in April but soured in May when Sabadell snubbed the approach, prompting BBVA’s promise to adjust the offer to reflect dividend payments by adding cash.

After Sabadell paid an interim €0.08 per share on its 2024 results on October 1, BBVA announced an offer of one newly-issued ordinary share for every 5.0196 Sabadell ordinary shares.

As BBVA is paying its investors a €0.29 interim dividend per share on October 10, the offer has been upped to one new-issued ordinary BBVA share and €0.29 in cash for every 5.0196 ordinary Sabadell shares.

Copper-bottomed deal BT has received a £105 million (€126.1 million) upfront payment for the sale of unneeded copper cable used in its old internet network.

As the telecommunications company launches a £15 billion (€18 billion) rollout of high speed fibre broadband to 25 million properties, it has reached  agreement with a recycling company that will buy the surplus copper.

To date, BT has installed fibre broadband in 15 million premises but hopes to have extend this to 25 million by late 2026 and 30 million by 2030.

Small fry CriteriaCaixa has begun selling off some of the minority shareholdings that the La Caixa Foundation’s investment arm acquired after selling its Abertis stake.

By the end of June Criteria had divested itself of assets worth €325.6 million, of which €77.4 million corresponded to Spanish-listed businesses and €275.2 to international companies.

Watchers attributed the sales to Angel Simon who took over as chief executive in April 2024 and whose plans included reducing Criteria’s exposure to companies where it wields little influence owing to its minority stake.

H&M layoffs In 2020, the pandemic created a continuing boom in online sales that has left all fashion chains with more stores than they needed.

This has been especially problematic for H&M, which between 2010 and 2018 had around 5,000 shops as it competed with the Zara brand owned by Inditex.

H&M’s Spanish subsidiary, whose 2023 accounts have not yet been presented, recently began negotiating redundancies affecting 600 employees in Spain and the closure of 28 stores.

The group expects to close 200 stores worldwide, but the Spanish market will see most, H&M said.  This is its second series of layoffs in Spain, the first of which affected 350 employees in mid-2021.

Pay cut Despite posting record Dyson sales and a £1 billion (€1.2 billion) profit in 2023, the dividend paid to Sir James Dyson’s family-owned company was cut by 40 per cent.

Accounts filed in Singapore, where the company is based, revealed that Dyson Holdings paid £700 million (€840.7 million) to Weybourne Holdings, which manages the founder’s investments.

This was down from the £1.2 billion (€1.4 billion) dividend paid in 2022 to Dyson who possesses an estimated fortune of £23 billion (€27.3 billion).

Turin contract Spain’s Sacyr and Italian construction company Fininc will create a consortium to design, finance, build, manage and maintain a Turin hospital complex.

The €500 million project signed with the Piamonte authorities that will take five years to complete includes a 1,040-bed hospital, university campus and a commercial zone with shops.

The hospital will provide healthcare for a population of around 300,000 people and incorporate three of Turin’s existing health centres.

Bag it Mulberry turned down an £83 million (€99.7 million) takeover offer from Frasers Group owned by Mike Ashley.

Frasers which owns multiple retail brands including Sports Direct, the House of Fraser department stores, already holds a 36.8 per cent stake in Mulberry.

The luxury handbag brand said that Frasers’ offer of 130p (€1.56) a share was too low, after carefully considering the proposal and consulting majority shareholder Challice, owned by Singapore businesswoman Christina Ong.

She had no interest in the Frasers offer, Ong said, while Mulberry announced that it preferred to continue with plans to raise sufficient funds for a turnaround.