By Elena Vardon
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria is pursuing merger talks with smaller peer Banco de Sabadell, seeking another shot at a Spanish banking tie-up that fell apart in 2020.
Spanish lender BBVA said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that its board has approached Sabadell's chair to explore a combination, and that it has appointed advisors.
Sabadell separately said it received a merger proposal from BBVA that its board will analyze. The bank had earlier said it hadn't started talks or negotiations.
A merger would form a bank with combined value of almost 73 billion euros ($78.27 billion). BBVA's market capitalization stood at EUR63.5 billion as of Monday's close, while Sabadell's was EUR9.4 billion, according to FactSet data.
The banks have considered a merger before. In November 2020, talks were called off due to disagreements over pricing a couple of weeks after they were disclosed.
At 1246 GMT, Sabadell shares traded 6.4% higher at EUR1.85 while BBVA fell 6.8% to EUR10.16.
Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-30-24 0905ET