Saturday, July 24, 2004

Spain's biggest bank makes a bid for Abbey National.

According to reports in the Spanish press today, spokesmen from Spain's largest bank, the Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH), will make an official statement tomorrow about reports that it has made a formal bid to take over Britain's Abbey National Bank.

The Santander Central Hispano Bank has called an extraordinary meeting of its Board of Directors tomorrow, Sunday, to vote on whether or not to go ahead with the bid. BSCH sources  confirmed on Friday that  bank representatives had held talks with Abbey National directors, but they said that "at the moment it is impossible to determine whether or not our conversations will lead to a definite offer".

If the Santander Group does take over Abbey National, British people buying property in Spain could well benefit from the operation.  Spain's property market has been the subject of much speculation over the past few weeks, and soaring house prices certainly seem to have stabilised for the first time in 4 years, although they certainly are not coming down yet and, according to experts here, probably won't.

Already a partner of the Royal Bank of Scotland, if the Santander Central Hispano Bank does finally decide to buy Abbey National, British citizens wanting to finance the purchase of a holiday home in Spain will be able to do so without having to face extra costs coming from transferring money from one bank to another, mortgage etc. According to this Guardian article, the BSCH bank may even ask its Royal Bank of Scotland partners to run the British bank on its behalf.

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posted by Euroresidentes at 7:49 PM

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