Acquisition

We all know the dominant opinion about Santander when related to acquisitions and sales during the 2008 crisis and sequels: Santander has sold assets to boost capital and sustain the dividend whilst the EPS were falling. I have been following daily news about Santander for nearly 2 years, and was with the feeling that this opinion was not correct. So I started to collect the history of sales and acquisition. The information is in the table below. It is incomplete. There are missing operations, and for the listed operations some information is missing or not verified from a trusted source. However the data is exhaustive enough to build an informed opinion. The history starts in 1994. Emilio Botin III was named Chairman in 1986. 4 lines are greened: these are the most important operations and each one will have its own section (in the future)

Country	Year	Ops	What	Value	Gain Goodwill	Remark
Poland	2014	SELL	2% of the shares	USD 227		30% free float
Canada	2014	BUY	Carfinco	210
Portugal	2014	SELL	51% of insurance			Aegon
Brazil	2014	BUY	60% in a JV with banco Bonsucesso	USD 205
Several	2014	SELL	50% Custody business (Spain, Mexico, Brazil)		410	Warburg Pincus and Temasek
All	2014	SELL	51% of Consumer finance insurance		250	CNP
Scandinavia	2014	BUY	GE money in Sweden, Denmark and Norway	700
Brazil	2014	BUY	Santander Brasil 13.65%	2620		completion H2 2014, new shares
Europe	2014	BUY	PSA bank 50% JV	?		Completion 2015
Colombia	2014	BUY	Banco Santander de negocios	$100		Open new bank with $100mi capital
US	2014	SELL	Santander Consumer USA		740	Sells 4% in IPO, keeps 60.7%
China	2014	BUY	Bank of Shangai	470		Buys 8% of BoS from HSBC
China	2013	BUY	Bank of Beijing Consumer finance	38		20.00%
China	2013	BUY	Fortune auto finance	31		JV, has 50%
Spain	2013	SELL	Real estate, collection	700	385	Apollo
Spain	2013	BUY	51% Cortes Ingles	140
Brazil	2013	BUY	GetNet	350	?
Mexico	2013	BUY	ING mortgage
Global	2013	SELL	JV Asset management		700	Warburg Pincus, General Atlantic
Spain	2012	SELL	51% insurance		410	Aegon
	2012	SELL	JV consumer		87	Elavon
Mexico	2012	SELL	Mexico		3178	IPO
UK	2012	SELL	Abbey reinsurance		467	DB
Poland	2012	BUY	Kredyt Bank	3987??		KBC
US	2011	SELL	SCUSA		872	External capital increase, keeps 65%
Colombia	2011	SELL	Colombia		983	Corpbanca
Latam	2011	SELL	51% insurance		641	Zurich
Brazil	2010	SELL	CBSS		89	Bradesco, Banco do Brasil
UK	2010	SELL	Abbey insurance		39	IFG UK
Spain	2010	BUY	Banif Inmobiliaro Fund	2326
US	2010	BUY	HSBC auto loans	4000
Germany	2010	BUY	SEB branches	494
Mexico	2010	BUY	Mexico	2500		BAC
US	2010	BUY	Citi consumers	3200
Poland	2010	BUY	Zachodni WBK	109??	2000	AIG
Brazil	2009	SELL	Brazil		1420	IPO
Venezuela	2009	NAT	Venezuela		0
	2009	SELL	VISANET		357	Bradesco, Banco do Brasil
US	2009	BUY	Sovereign	$ 1500?		Last 75%
UK	2008	BUY	Alliance & Leicester Bradford & Bingley	GBP 1260 GBP 612	2000	3rd bank in UK
Spain	2008	SELL	Santander City		1900	Pearl group
Spain	2007	SELL	Spanish branches		1076	Sun Capital
Various	2007	BUY	ABN Amro Brazil: Banco Real Italy: Antoneneta France: Antoveneta switched with parts of GE money)		7000	Size x2 Sold to Monte dei Paschi Switched to GE money
Latam	2007	SELL	Pensions		622	ING
Portugal	2007	SELL	BPI Portugal		84	BCP
	2006	SELL	Reyal Urbis		1218	Reyal
Brazil	2006 2007	SELL	Intesa SanPaolo		704 566	Market Market
US	2006	BUY	Drive Consumer USA	$900		90% from HBOS and founder
US	2005	BUY	Sovereign	$ 2500?		1st 25%
UK	2004	BUY	Abbey	12000	10000	6th bank in UK
Various	2003	BUY	Create Santander Consumer Germany: CC-Bank Italy: Finconsumo Spain: Hispamer		850
Chile	2000	BUY	Banco Santiago	612	500
Mexico	2000	BUY	Grupo Serfin	1650	1300
Brazil	2000	BUY	Patagon
Brazil	2000	BUY	Banespa	5487
	1999	BUY	Natwest
Portugal	1999	BUY	Totta		1850
	1996	BUY	Banco de Venezuala	683
Spain	1994	BUY	BCH	12595
Spain	2013 1998 1994	BUY	Banesto	? 3482 ?		3% 49.9% 48.1%

There are several distinct periods:

• Up to 1994. Santander was a medium sized local Spanish bank. Then in 1994 they acquired Banesto and BCH. After the 2 operations, Santander became the biggest Spanish bank. It also acquired with BCH a significant business in Latam.
• 1995-2007. International growth centered in Latam, consumer finance, and UK, also 1st shot in the US. There are 2 very significant deals in that period: the acquisition of Abbey in 2004, and the ABN Amro deal negotiated in 2007, and concluded in 2008. Abbey made Santander the 6th bank in the UK, but linked to that acquisition was a €10bi goodwill. ABN Amro is the biggest banking operation ever. The purchasers were Santander, RBS (now nationalized) and Fortis (Belgian bank, does not exist anymore). Santander got Banco Real in Brazil, doubling its size in the country. They also got Antonveneta Italy, sold 3 months later to Monte dei Paschi for €9bi (a gain of €3bi), and Antoveneta France, exchanged to GE money business mainly in Germany. During that period they acquired the first 25% of Sovereign for $2.5bi. 
• 2008-2010. Bargain hunting from US/UK banks. In US, Sovereign 75% were bought for only $1.5bi. Also significant deals from Citi, HSBC, BAC (the 25% of Mexico they IPOed in 2012). In UK they bought 2 more banks to become the 3th UK bank. Finally the bought Zachodni in Poland from AIB (Ireland). Venezuela was nationalized. The 25% IPO in Brazil was a regulator requirement to approve the Banco Real acquisition.
• 2011-2013. Raise money by selling non core business, mainly in Insurance and AM. The sold Colombian subsidiary had only 3% market share (and this makes difficult to have local cost economies). This did not prevent them to make the Kredyt bank acquisition in Poland; In that way they became the 3rd biggest bank in the country. The 25% free float requirement in the country is also imposed by the local regulator.
• 2013-. Biggest deal is OPA on 25% of Santander Brasil: €4.7bi. Small acquisitions in Brazil, Mexico and Spain.  3 deals in China including €470mi on Bank of Shangai. The sales of non core business continue. There is also a significant flow of news or rumors of more significant acquisitions: News: a 3rd purchase in Poland (won by BNP), NCG in Spain (bid due next 2013/12/16? won by Banesto), PSA financing in France (for 2015). Rumors: Commerzbank in Germany (denied by the company).

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