Cleary Gottlieb represented Laredo National Bancshares, Inc. (LNBI) and its stockholders in the sale of 100% of its common stock to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA) for approximately $860 million in cash. The deal closed after receiving regulatory approvals from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Bank of Spain.
LNBI, a privately-owned financial holding company and bank holding company headquartered in Laredo, Texas, has built up a leading market position of about 23% share of the Hispanic and Mexican-American market in the Texas border region, with approximately $3.5 billion in assets and 110,000 customers. BBVA, the second largest Spanish bank with a leading presence in Mexico and throughout Latin America, has been building up its business on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to capture the flow of funds between the two countries. The acquisition of LNBI would be the largest investment in the United States to date by BBVA.