Martin Vander Weyer’s Any Other Business
Santander is a port in northern Spain with a population the size of Swindon’s. It is also the eurozone’s largest banking group, an institution that has far outgrown its origins to become the owner, in Britain, of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and the branch network of the crippled Bradford & Bingley. Having spent more than £35 billion on acquisitions around the world in recent years, it is currently spending another £2 billion to buy 318 Royal Bank of Scotland branches, has just spent £1.7 billion to buy out Bank of America’s stake in a Mexican joint venture, and is hoping to pick up some more branches in Germany. Under the leadership since 1986 of third-generation chairman Emilio Botin, Santander has apparently gone from strength to strength while other major banks have tottered and failed.
Yet Santander’s home market is now regarded by investors as the most worrisome eurozone economy — as heavy selling of its government bonds this week confirmed.
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