MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Santander new chairwoman confirms full control of the Brazil branch
Ana Botin, told shareholders at an extraordinary meeting she would defend the legacy of her father Emilio Botín at the helm of the Euro zone's biggest bank. Spanish banking giant Santander under its new executive chairperson Ana Botin announced on Monday the purchase of the remaining 25% of Banco Santander Brasil which it did not already own.
Shareholders approved the capital raising for the deal, with the purchase expected to be worth around 6.5bn dollars. Santander group is paying the market price plus 20 per cent for the shares.
Ana Botin, told shareholders at an extraordinary meeting she would defend the legacy of her father Emilio Botín at the helm of the Euro zone's biggest bank. She said the bank's priorities included maintaining a prudent strategy and dividend policy.
Appointed last week after the sudden death of her father Emilio, the chairperson also said she would push ahead with the international diversification of the lender. The Brazilian expansion was an early move in Emilio Botin’s 30 years at the top.
At the meeting in Santander, northern Spain, Ana Botin said prudent risk-taking, focus on clients and retail banking, and the capacity to take advantage of acquisition opportunities had been Emilio Botin's management achievements.
“My ambition is to continue this success story, to which I will dedicate my greatest efforts,” she said.
Ms Botin also pointed out that the Spanish lender's strong national units, most of them listed, were a strength that would deliver future growth.
Ana Botin confirmed Santander was seeing positive earnings trends for 2014. “As we come to the end of the third quarter, I can tell you that the positive trends in the group's results are continuing,” she stated.
Santander is the leading bank in Latin America and its activity in the region represents 51% of the group's earnings, over 2bn dollars in the first half of 2014.
The main branches are in Brazil and Mexico, two of the group's jewels, and to a lesser extent Chile and Argentina. Brazil with its 27.3 million clients is strategic and its affiliate Santander Brasil is the third largest private bank and the first foreign bank.
In Mexico Santander is third among banking institutions, with an estimated 10 million clients.
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Read all commentsA positive sign of investment for Brasil.
Sep 16th, 2014 - 02:41 pm 0Counters the “doom and gloom” rhetoric of others that wish to see Brasil go under.
They don't want to see Brazil go under, they want to see Marxism go under because it is a big lie claiming to champion the common man and only caging him.
Sep 16th, 2014 - 03:00 pm 0Santander's move is no surprise. It is notorious that there is no market better for banks than Brazil. The Government, that is so dependent on them, allows them to make enormous profits on services which used to be for free, but after the Plano Real (1994), which stabilized the Real (national currency) and got inflation under control, the banks claimed they would go bust if they could not implement fees to compensate for the loss of (easy) profits on the financial market. For example, on a savings account today, you can earn upto roughly 0.7 % per month ; on a Fund, depending on the risk exposure, from 0.8% (safe) to 1.5% (risky) per month... In Funds with a greater percentage of shares than Treasury bonds, earnings could be negative....On the other hand, people borrowing money from the bank, will pay anything from 250 % to 300% per year.... Anybody want to open a bank in Brazil ??
Sep 16th, 2014 - 06:37 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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