Preliminary agreement with an Apollo fund

Santander signs an agreement in principle to sell its real estate platform Altamira to Apollo

· The platform handles Banco Santander's loan recoveries and manages its real estate assets in Spain.

Madrid, November 21, 2013 - Banco Santander has signed an agreement in principle with Apollo European Principal Finance Fund II, a fund managed by subsidiaries of Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE: APO) (Apollo), to sell to Apollo the platform that handles loan recoveries for Banco Santander S.A. in Spain and manages and markets real estate assets related to this activity.

The real estate assets and credit portfolio will remain on Banco Santander's balance sheet. Both will continue to be managed by the platform, but the platform will be owned by Apollo.

The agreement in principle is the result of a bidding process, during which a large number of investors expressed an interest in the platform.

Full details of the agreement are expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, at which point the terms of the deal, including the price, will be published.