Banco Santander posted net profit of 6.619 billion euros in 2017, up 7% from a year ago. The profit figure was affected by extraordinary charges totalling 897 million euros. These were required due to atypical elements like the US tax reform or the restructuring of Banco Popular.
Looking at the profit and loss account, on the one hand there were non-recurrent gains of 370 million euros from the sale of 50% of the funds platform Allfunds (297 million euros) and the US tax reform (73 million). And on the other, almost 1.270 billion euros in extraordinary losses, mainly related to restructuring costs for Popular and the deterioration in goodwill at Santander’s consumer business in the US. Without these elements, ordinary profit grew 13.5% to 7.516 billion euros.
Net attributable profit beat analyst consensus for 6.455 billion euros, down 2% year-on-year.
Brazil remains the group’s earnings driver, contributing 26% of profits. After the integration of Popular, Spain’s weighting is 15%, rivalling that of the UK (16%), and is once again the bank’s second largest market.
“We see a lot of organic growth opportunities accompanying our 133 million clients. In 2018, we predict there will be growth in all our main markets. We will invest even more in global digital platforms to provide better services, more efficiently, to more clients,” the bank’s chairwoman Ana Botin said.
