Profil:
Santander Bank Polska SABanco Santander sold 5.2 percent of Santander Bank Polska shares in ABB, at PLN 463 per share
Banco Santander has sold 5.2 percent of Santander Bank Polska's shares at PLN 463 (EUR 108.2) per share as a result of accelerated book building (ABB), aimed exclusively at institutional investors, the Polish bank said in a filing.
The final number of shares to be sold was set at 5,320,000 shares, representing 5.2 percent of the bank's share capital. Earlier, the Spanish bank wanted to sell 5.1 percent of Santander Bank Polska's shares.
The total value of the offer reached PLN 2.46 billion (EUR 574.8 mln).
After the sale is settled, Banco Santander will hold a majority stake of 63,560,774 shares in Santander Bank Polska, representing 62.2 percent of the bank's share capital.
In relation to the placement, Banco Santander has undertaken, subject to customary exceptions, to comply with a lock-up undertaking in respect of the remaining shares held by the shareholder in the company for a period of 180 days from the date of the settlement of the sale transactions.
The placement will increase the company's free float and is expected to enhance the liquidity profile of the stock and increase company's weight in the relevant stock indices.
"The shareholder will remain a long-term majority shareholder in the company. Poland remains a core market for the shareholder and the shareholder will continue to support the current strategy of the company and its strategic targets for 2024-26, including being a top three bank in Poland by return on equity and Net-Promoter-Score,” Santander Bank Poland wrote.
Banco Santander said the stake sale is in line with its strategic objective of proactively allocating capital to create shareholder value.
“The shareholder expects to redeploy the capital released from the placement into value accretive organic growth opportunities and/or additional share buy-backs”, the filing said.
In connection with the placement, Banco Santander (in its capacity as a manager and not as a shareholder selling the sale shares), Santander Bank Polska - Santander Brokerage Poland (Biuro Maklerskie), Bank Handlowy w Warszawie - Brokerage Office of Bank Handlowy, Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG and Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE acted as the Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners.
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