Santander buys Swedish bank's German units
By Jonathan Gleave |
July 13, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SPAIN'S Santander consolidated its full service operation in Germany with the acquisition of the retail banking division of Sweden's SEB, the bank said yesterday.
The 555 million euros (US$699 million) deal comes as the eurozone's No. 1 bank by market capitalization attempts to increase its footprint in Europe's biggest economy at a time when the retail banking sector is in a state of flux.
"Germany is a core market for Santander. This acquisition is a significant step toward achieving our goal of being a full service retail bank in Europe's largest market," Chairman Emilio Botin said.
SEB's German retail division made an operating loss of 117 million euros in 2009.
The acquisition includes 173 branches serving over 1 million customers in Germany.
The impact on Santander's financial position is relatively small with the bank saying its core capital ratio could fall by 10 basis points from the acquisition.
SEB will book a net loss of 240 million euros in 2010 results with an overall negative impact of 320 million euros, the Swedish group said.
Separately, the Spanish bank is looking to increase its presence in Colombia and Peru, where it has market shares of between 10 and 20 percent, said Francisco Luzon, head of Santander's Latin American operations, the Financial Times reported.
Santander, which largely managed to dodge the fallout of the United States toxic debt crisis due to strict Bank of Spain rules on the kind of financial derivatives Spanish banks can hold, has continued its aggressive acquisition campaign in recent years.
The bank has bid for a network of 318 UK branches being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland and has had conversations on merging its US operations with M&T Bank, according to a company official recently.
The 555 million euros (US$699 million) deal comes as the eurozone's No. 1 bank by market capitalization attempts to increase its footprint in Europe's biggest economy at a time when the retail banking sector is in a state of flux.
"Germany is a core market for Santander. This acquisition is a significant step toward achieving our goal of being a full service retail bank in Europe's largest market," Chairman Emilio Botin said.
SEB's German retail division made an operating loss of 117 million euros in 2009.
The acquisition includes 173 branches serving over 1 million customers in Germany.
The impact on Santander's financial position is relatively small with the bank saying its core capital ratio could fall by 10 basis points from the acquisition.
SEB will book a net loss of 240 million euros in 2010 results with an overall negative impact of 320 million euros, the Swedish group said.
Separately, the Spanish bank is looking to increase its presence in Colombia and Peru, where it has market shares of between 10 and 20 percent, said Francisco Luzon, head of Santander's Latin American operations, the Financial Times reported.
Santander, which largely managed to dodge the fallout of the United States toxic debt crisis due to strict Bank of Spain rules on the kind of financial derivatives Spanish banks can hold, has continued its aggressive acquisition campaign in recent years.
The bank has bid for a network of 318 UK branches being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland and has had conversations on merging its US operations with M&T Bank, according to a company official recently.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
