Banco de Sabadell shares gain after $1bn US retail arm sale

Shares in Spain’s Banco de Sabadell rose almost 5 per cent on Wednesday after it announced the $1bn sale of its US retail banking operations in a deal that it said would generate a big capital gain.

Iberiabank, the Nasdaq-listed lender that is the largest in Louisiana, said late on Tuesday that it had agreed to acquire Sabadell United Bank, which is based in Miami and has 26 branches across Florida and $4.6bn of customer deposits.

Sabadell said the proceeds of the transaction, made up of $803m of cash and a 4.9 per cent stake in Iberiabank, would generate a capital gain of about $447m. Analysts estimated this would boost its core capital ratio from 12 to about 13 per cent.

Shares in the Spanish bank, which is looking to expand in the UK where it recently acquired TSB for £1.7bn, rose 4.9 per cent to €1.46, close to their six-month high.

The deal valued Sabadell’s Miami-based retail bank at a punchy 1.95 times its tangible book value and more than 21 times its net income in 2016.

The Spanish bank said it would continue to operate its corporate and private banking operations out of Miami, from where it serves clients across Latin America, except for Mexico where it has a sizeable presence.