(Bloomberg) -- BBVA is boosting its London team as it seeks to grow the corporate and investment banking business.
The Spanish lender currently employs about 200 staff in the UK capital, it said in a statement in response to Bloomberg questions, up from 154 at the end of last year. That’s an increase of 30% in less than nine months.
The hires include Shakti Butola from Citigroup for European M&A, according to his LinkedIn profile. A BBVA spokesperson confirmed the addition.
BBVA, whose official name is Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, plans to keep hiring, it said in the statement. The lender is also looking for a new regional headquarters to nearly double its space to roughly 50,000 square feet from about 30,000 square feet at present, Bloomberg has reported.
The number of BBVA’s UK staff — all of whom sit in London — has been growing for several years, although its operations in the country continue to account for just a small part of the group. They contributed less than 1% to overall pretax profit last year.
The Spanish lender is currently pursuing a hostile takeover of domestic rival Banco Sabadell SA, which owns a large retail lender in the UK known as TSB Bank. BBVA hasn’t said what it wants to do with TSB if it ends up buying Sabadell.
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