Santander Eyes TSB Acquisition as Banco Sabadell Explores Sale of UK Arm

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) is one of the best-performing NYSE stocks to buy now. On June 18, Santander approached Banco Sabadell, which is Spain’s fourth-largest bank, regarding a potential takeover of its UK retail arm called TSB. The move comes after Sabadell confirmed receiving multiple expressions of interest for TSB, which it acquired from Lloyds Bank in 2015 for £1.7 billion.

TSB originated as the Trustee Savings Bank in Dumfriesshire in 1810 and currently serves 5 million customers across the UK and holds a mortgage book valued at over £33 billion.  Santander has not yet made a formal offer and may still withdraw from the bidding process. If a deal is struck, the acquisition of TSB would support Santander’s UK retail banking business, which currently serves ~14 million customers across its roughly 350 UK branches.

Santander Eyes TSB Acquisition as Banco Sabadell Explores Sale of UK Arm

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The potential expansion follows earlier speculation that Santander might exit Britain, which is a notion strongly denied by Santander’s Chief Executive, Ana Botin, who affirmed in January that the lender would remain in the UK into the future. Last month, Santander also rejected an £11 billion offer from NatWest for its own UK banking arm.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) provides various financial products and services to individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, and public entities worldwide.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.