Banco Sabadell sells its business in Andorra to MoraBanc for 67 million

Banco Sabadell has agreed this Thursday the sale of its business in Andorra to MoraBanc for around 67 million euros, although the final amount is subject to an audit of accounts on June 30, 2021.

Thus, MoraBanc will buy Banco Sabadell’s entire stake in Banc Sabadell d’Andorra, that is, 51.61%, taking into account treasury shares, and undertakes to offer the minority shareholders of BancSabadell d’Andorra Andorra the acquisition of its shares under the same financial terms agreed with Banco Sabadell.

The closing of the operation, pending regulatory authorizations, is scheduled for the last quarter of 2021, and Banco Sabadell expects it to contribute seven basis points to its fully-loaded Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio, reported the entity chaired by Joseph Olive.

For its part, MoraBanc will become the leading bank in Andorra in domestic business, managing more than 10,500 million euros in customer funds, 1,600 million euros of credit investment and maintaining leading profitability and solvency ratios in the country of the Pyrenees.

The two entities reported the start of negotiations on May 17 and culminated this Thursday with the signing of the agreement between Lluís Alsina, CEO of MoraBanc, and César González-Bueno, CEO of Banco Sabadell.

BancSabadell d’Andorra manages total resources -on balance sheet and off balance sheet- of 1,830 million euros and its volume of loans amounts to 426 million euros. It has a CET1 solvency ratio of 20.4% and a profitability ratio (ROE) of 10.5%. Its market share is close to 20%, it has seven branches and a wide network of ATMs that serve 23% of individuals and 32% of Andorran companies.

It is the largest corporate operation to date for the Andorran bank with 100% family capital, which forms part of its growth strategy. In the last financial year, MoraBanc’s profit grew by 20% to 30.1 million euros, customer funds by 6.5%, and its solvency also improved to 25.5% (CET1 fully loaded) and the profitability (RoE) up to 9.47%.

In the last four years, MoraBanc has had an upward trend thanks to the transformation of the entity, the investments in digital banking and the professionalization of the governing bodies.