BBVA said Wednesday that its second-quarter net profit rose 38% year-on-year in 2023 thanks to a strong performance in Spain, where it aims to expand through a €12.28 billion takeover bid for competitor Sabadell.

The bank posted a net profit of €2.79 billion (about $3.02 billion) in the April-June period, up from €2.03 billion in the same period last year.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a net profit of 2.46 billion euros.

(1 U.S. dollar = 0.9320 euros)

(Report by Jesús Aguado, edited by Inti Landauro; Spanish edition by Tomás Cobos)