Private equity fund Blackstone and Banco Santander have injected 300 million euros in the property fund in which both have a stake. The alliance is a mix of societies under the umbrella of parent company Project Quasar Investments 2017, which includes what was previously Banco Popular’s real estate portfolio. Its gross assets are valued at 30 billion euros, with a net value of 10 billion.
Santander clocked up a 10% year-on-year rise in first quarter net profit to 2.054 billion euros, beating forecasts for 2.01 billion euros in a Reuters poll. The results were driven by strong growth in its largest market, Brazil. But its operations in Mexico and Spain also boosted group performance.
Morgan Stanley believes Spain and Italy are going to dominate Net Interest Income growth in 2019. They flag that Unicaja, Bankinter and Caixabank are amongst the banks which improve their ROTE more with every 50 bp rise in the Euribor. Furthermore, they have very efficient cost structures.
Bankia Chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, has fuelled M&A rumours after saying in an interview with the FT that the bank “fits perfectly with other large Spanish banks, specially BBVA.”
Banco Santander posted 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.
Analysts at Bankinter offer an investment strategy for the European banks ahead of the new year. Overall they reiterate their recommendation to maintain a structural position in banks due to the improvment in the quality of their balances and the recovery in business volumes.
The difference between top managers’ salaries in Ibex-35 companies and the lowest salaries in these same firms is on average 207 times, which shows the salary gap in Spain is increasing.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has updated its list of global systemic banks and Santander remains the only Spanish bank in the new classification.
Banco Santander earned attributable profit of € 5,077 M to Sept this year, a rise of 10 % compared to the same period last year after €515 million of one-off items. These are the first results presentation after Banco Popular integration last June.
Mari Pinardo | Banco Santander reached an agreement on Tuesday to sell US private equity firm Blackstone a majority 51% stake in 30 billion euros of soured property assets and loans it inherited when it bought ailing lender Banco Popular in June.