Santander Central Hispano finally acquires Bank of American Polska
The Banking Supervisory Commission allowed Spanish Banco Santander Central
Hispano (SCH) to take over the Bank of America (Polska). SCH now has 75% of
the vote in BoA's General Shareholders Meeting. The most important part of
the transaction involved the acquisition of BoA's banking licence. However,
SCH did not take over either the bank's assets, nor its staff. "SCH plans to
offer loans to individuals and may become a competitor to Lucas Bank," said
a source close to the deal. "It may turn out that the market will prove very
attractive for the Spanish investor," said Tomasz Bieske from Ernst & Young.
Previously Santander tried and failed to acquire Lucas Bank and Invest-Bank.
SCH operates in 39 countries, has 39 million clients and 10,000 branches
with assets of euro 330 billion. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B7) K.Z.
