Abanca leaves the door open for new acquisitions after Targobank closed its doors

In his response to the press, within the scope of his corporate operations strategy, bank will reduce profit percentage will pay a 40% to 25% dividend in 2023 to strengthen its ability to continue growing.

The rise in interest rates, he thought, improve the financial margin for the industry as a whole and it will translate into greater profitability and therefore greater growth capacity. “I don’t believe that acquisitions through inorganic growth (mergers) are out of the way. On the contrary, we continue to seize every opportunity. “There is nothing on our radar in the short term, but we believe that opportunities will emerge in the medium term and we will try to evaluate them,” he said. Regarding the type of purchase that fits Abanca’s plans, larger scale operations “more attractive”, because size can “play positively” in the rendering of results. Thus, he stated that if this “opportunity” comes up, they will prefer “middle” assets.

While he insists they are not currently considering any integration, he stressed to journalists’ questions that Portugal “continues to be a strategic market” for which they have a “real appetite” to continue growing as there is a way to diversify their Iberian presence. .

In addition, the head of the bank underlined the high quality of the results. 94% come from the banking business with customers. He also emphasized that the business volume of the finance company, which takes into account the acquisition of Targobank, which will be made official in the coming months, has exceeded 111 million. Escotet y Botas stressed that the establishment had attracted 110,000 new customers in the last twelve months, a “historic record”, mostly outside Galicia.

The business points to the improvement in insurance sales and the contribution of collections, citing the good behavior of interest income (+14.2%) and the increase in service delivery (+9.4%) among the main factors explaining this development. and payment services”. It also prioritizes lending to families and companies. Regarding the quality of the asset, of which Abanca is the “leader”, default rate is 2.0% With 83.2% suspicious coverage.

Abanca’s board of directors agreed to pay a fourth dividend against its 2022 profit of 0.01360 gross euros per share on 2 February. It will distribute 30.48 million euros in total.

Bank tax to be challenged ‘clearly unconstitutional’

Banking tax incentive State central government “clearly unconstitutional”, in the words of Escotet, who yesterday asserted the organization’s intention to file an appeal “when the time comes.” After detailing that this tax represents a “relevant impact figure” for the bank, with “about 50 million impact on the income statement”, he criticized a measure that “clearly puts us at a disadvantage” because “not just this one”. does not have an impact on the implementation of a larger volume of credit, which will be particularly relevant this year”, rather it “distances itself from European best practices” in the sector. Expressing that this rate “damaged the whole economy” in the previous matches, the president of Abanca summarized, “It puts us at a disadvantage in our own sector.” “It affects our solvency, our profitability, and ultimately our likelihood of making new loans.. It has been approved, we will comply with the statute, but I think it is the wrong way.” The bank tax, which has been highly criticized throughout the industry, applies a 4.8% tax rate to the interest margin and commissions received by financial institutions.