Acquisition

14th Sep 2005 16:04

Banco Santander Central Hispano SA14 September 2005 SANTANDER CONSUMER ACQUIRES CONTROL OF INTERBANCO AND INTEGRATES ITS BUSINESS INPORTUGAL WITH SAG Santander Consumer will acquire 50.001% of Interbanco for EUR 110 million andform an alliance with SAG, Interbanco's other shareholder. Interbanco will integrate with Hispamer Portugal and Santander Consumer willhold a 60% stake in the combined company and SAG the remaining 40%. The newcompany will be the leader in auto financing in Portugal. Santander Consumer and SAG will combine their operational car leasing businessesin Spain and Portugal in a new company that will assume their assets in thissegment. Madrid, September 14, 2005 - Santander Consumer, of Grupo Santander, and SAG(Solucoes Automovel Globlais) of Portugal have reached an agreement to form analliance to jointly carry out consumer and vehicle financing in Portugal, aswell as operational car leasing in Spain and Portugal. In the first stage of this agreement, SAG will exercise its right of firstrefusal on the 50.001% of the capital of Interbanco that it does not alreadyown. SAG will notify BCP, which owns this stake, that it is exercising thisright and that Santander Consumer will acquire the stake under the same termsBCP had agreed for its sale to Societe Generale. Santander Consumer will pay EUR110 million for this stake. Interbanco ended 2004 with assets of EUR 700million. Following this acquisition, Santander Consumer and SAG will combine theirconsumer and vehicle finance businesses through the integration of Interbancoand Hispamer Portugal. Santander Consumer will hold 60% of the capital of thecombined company and SAG the remaining 40%. The new company will be the marketleader in auto financing in Portugal. In addition, both companies will combine in a new company their operational carleasing businesses in Spain and Portugal to carry out this business in theIberian peninsula. The shareholdings in this company will be identical to thoseof the Portuguese consumer and auto financing company: 60% Santander Consumerand 40% SAG. This alliance in operational car leasing may also be extended toother markets. The final terms of these transactions are pending a valuation of the assetsinvolved by an independent company, taking into account the respective 60% and40% stakes of Santander Consumer and SAG. The agreement is subject to theapproval of regulatory authorities. Santander Consumer is the Grupo Santander unit that specialises in consumerfinance, with a presence in 12 European countries including Spain, Germany,Italy, Poland and Portugal. With 5,051 employees and 255 branches, SantanderConsumer finances 900,000 new and used automobiles a year. At the end of June2005, Santander Consumer had assets of EUR 35.425 million. The unit registerednet attributable income of EUR 237 million in the first half, an increase of45.8%. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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