Santander Announces It Has Completed Acquisition of Island Finance
March 01 2006 - 7:49AM
PR Newswire (US)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Santander
BanCorp (NYSE: SBP; LATIBEX: XSBP) today announced that its
wholly-owned subsidiary, Santander Financial Services, Inc., has
completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets and
business operations in Puerto Rico of Island Finance from Wells
Fargo & Company, pursuant to the agreement executed on January
22, 2006. Santander BanCorp is a publicly held financial holding
company that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (SBP) and on
Latibex (Madrid Stock Exchange) (XSBP). Banco Santander Central
Hispano, S.A (Santander) owns 91% of the outstanding common stock
of Santander BanCorp. The Company has four wholly owned
subsidiaries, Banco Santander Puerto Rico, Santander Securities
Corporation, Santander Insurance Agency and Santander Financial
Services, Inc. Banco Santander Puerto Rico has been operating in
Puerto Rico for nearly three decades. It offers a full array of
services through 64 branches in the areas of commercial, mortgage
and consumer banking, supported by a team of over 1,400 employees.
Santander Securities offers securities brokerage services and
provides portfolio management services through its wholly owned
subsidiary Santander Asset Management Corporation. Santander
Insurance Agency offers life, health and disability coverage as a
corporate agent and also operates as a general agent. For more
information, visit the Company's website at
http://www.santandernet.com/. Santander (SAN.MC, STD.N) is the
largest bank in the Euro Zone by market capitalization and one of
the largest worldwide. Founded in 1857, Santander has euro 809,000
million in assets and euro 961,000 million in managed funds, over
66 million customers, 129,000 employees, 10,200 offices and a
presence in 40 countries. It is the largest financial group in
Spain and Latin America, and is a major player elsewhere in Europe,
including the United Kingdom through its Abbey subsidiary and
Portugal, where it is the third largest banking group. Through
Santander Consumer Finance, it also operates a leading consumer
finance franchise in Germany, Italy, Spain and nine other European
countries. As of December 2005, Santander recorded euro 6,220
million in net attributable profits, 72.5% more than in the
previous year. In Latin America, Santander manages over US$190
billion in business volumes (loans, deposits, mutual funds and
pension funds) through 4,100 offices. As of December 2005,
Santander recorded in Latin America a net attributable income of
US$2.2 billion, 21% higher than prior year. DATASOURCE: Santander
BanCorp CONTACT: Evelyn Vega, +1-787-777-4546 Web site:
http://www.santandernet.com/
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