BBVA has agreed to acquire 9.95% of Turkiye Garanti Bankasi from Dogus Group for approximately a total of 3.32 billion Turkish lira (€859 million), increasing its stake in Turkey’s largest bank by market capitalization to 49.85%. The acquisition of the additional stake would boost BBVA Group’s net attributable profit by about €165 million in 2018, according to analysts’ consensus for Garanti’s earnings.

BBVA closed 2016 with an excellent achievement in terms of its loan business. The Bank acted as Bookrunner (the top role of any institution in a syndicated operation) in 60% of the transactions in which it was involved. Also, it increased its market share from 8.2% in 2015 to 14.8% in 2016.

On Wednesday, BBVA signed a green loan in favor of Iberdrola for 500 million euros. In addition to being the first operation of this type for an energy sector company, this agreement involves the highest sum as of this date.

It is the concept in vogue among startups. All of them are trying, with greater or less success, to get money from investors, and a funding round is precisely one of the ways to do this.

The usual “known unknowns” continue to be alive and new ones could join this year. In the short term, the anti ISIS offensive continues and still far from being solved. Meanwhile the long lasting conflict between Russia and Ukraine looks to escalate. North Africa and the Middle East will continue to be the main hot spots in 2017, but higher political and geopolitical uncertainties could arise all over the world. The rise of populism and constrains to the flows of people (anti-immigration) and trade (protectionism) will challenge the international rules and globalisation. The new agenda by the US administration and the response of China, Russia and the Middle East, as well as uncertainties in Europe (elections and the Brexit) will continue to shape the dynamics of the geopolitics of the coming years.

For more information, please visit BBVA Research's website

Speaking at BBVA’s 2016 results presentation, Francisco González said that after 10 years of working on the Group's transformation, progress is becoming increasingly evident for the bank’s customers. And how is that showing? In new digital services and products with a better user experience.