BANKER
Arrival to the Banco Popular Español
After earning a law degree and completing his doctorate (both in Barcelona), Luis Valls began working in the academic and publishing worlds. Meanwhile, he managed the finances of Opus Dei, which heightened his interest in financial economics. Considering his professional future, Luis Valls aspired to work in banking, and with this goal in mind, he moved to Madrid. Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora1 describes Valls’ initial interest in banking as follows:
Acquiring a Bank
“In 1952, Luis Valls began his efforts to enter high finance. His first attempt involved negotiations with the Count of Ruiseñada to acquire Banco Atlántico, but no agreement was reached due to the demanded price of fourteen million pesetas. Then he considered founding a new savings bank in Madrid, but the strict legislation did not allow for increasing the number of such institutions from a private initiative.
Subsequently, Valls turned his attention to Banco Popular, presided over by Félix Millet i Maristany, his mother’s first cousin, and where his mother’s brother, Pedro Arnó i Maristany, was also a director.”
Replacing His Uncle Félix
It was 1953, and Millet i Maristany clarified to his second cousin that he was only interested in insurance. As Ángel Ron2 explains, “In the bank, he mainly had a representative role, as it was his brother Salvador who was really in charge until he fell ill in 1954 and had to retire. Félix did not feel capable of managing the insurance company he owned and the bank.
Feeling overwhelmed, he thought about who could take over. Aware of Luis Valls’ desire to acquire a financial institution, he decided to trust him and offered to hand over control and management of the bank in exchange for financial assistance to consolidate his insurance empire.” .
Buying the Shares
Luis and his brother Javier3 recounted that their uncle said to him, literally, “I want you to cover my retreat and prevent someone from undoing all my work.” They reached an acquisition agreement. As Ángel Ron1 narrates, this involved gradually buying shares available in the market and then those held by the board members, one by one. Ángel Ron2 continues, “Valls began looking for investors to buy the shares of Millet and other directors of Popular until he gathered 10% of the capital. These transactions led to the replacement of the old directors with Catalan friends of Luis’ family: Ribalta, Soldevila, Buixó, Serra, and also the Valencian Miralles. It was a delicate process because it did not have the approval of the majority of the directors, and a major potential competitor, Banco Central, was interested in acquiring Popular. When that group of shareholders surpassed 10% of the share capital, they proposed Luis Valls as executive vice president. Former major shareholders like Gancedo also supported him.”It was the year 1957. With his characteristic ironic humor, Luis Valls would quip, “What took Mario Conde three months took me three years.” Valls was already executive vice president .
Bibliography
Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora wrote a profile of Luis Valls to be published by the FUNDER Foundation in an anthology of 20th-century Spanish bankers that never saw the light. History of Banco Popular. The fight for independence (Gabriel Tortella, José María Ortiz-Villajos, and José Luis García Ruiz, Marcial Pons, 2011). (3) Interview conducted in 1993 with Luis and Javier Valls Taberner at IESE by Eduardo Ballarín.
