...MADRID (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 25, 2019--S&P Global Ratings said today that it is monitoring developments after Abanca Corporacion Bancaria S.A. (Abanca; ##+/Stable/B) announced on Feb. 22 its interest in potentially launching a takeover bid for Spain-based Liberbank S.A. (Liberbank; not rated). The latter has been in merger talks with Unicaja for the past few months. Abanca is considering offering 0.56 per share. Such an offer would entail a 44% premium compared to its closing price on the previous day, valuing Liberbank for a total of 1.7 billion. The offer has not yet formally been launched. However, the Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission has requested that Abanca officially state--by March 8 at the latest--whether or not it is going to launch a public offer for Liberbank. We believe it is too early to assess whether the deal will go through and the potential effect that such a takeover could have on Abanca's creditworthiness, but we will continue to monitor developments and...
