Banco Santander’s Brazilian unit to raise $7.3 billion through share sale
22 Sep 2009
Latin American banking giant, Banco Santander said yesterday that it plans to raise as much as $7.3 billion by selling shares in its Brazilian unit as part of a plan to expand its Brazilian network in Southern and Southeastern Brazil and boost capital.
Spain-based Banco Santander, the largest lender in Latin America, said that its Brazilian unit will offer 525 million share deposit certificates to investors at 22 to 25 Brazilian reals each.
Each share deposit certificates represents 55 common shares and 50 preferred shares, which is equal to 16.2 per cent of the Brazilian unit's current capital.
The bank said that it expects to set the final price for the share offer on 6 October and the new shares will commence trading on 7 October on the New York stock exchange and on 8 October on the Brazil's Bovespa bourse.
The successful share sale would give the Brazilian unit of Banco Santander a market capitalisation of between $45.6 billion and $51.5 billion, putting it in among the same league as the world's 30 largest banks by market capitalisation.
The share sale would be Brazil's biggest yet, topping the $4.3 billion offering in June by the Brazilian affiliate of VisaNet- the US-based credit card operator. It would also surpass the $7.3 billion IPO in July by China State Construction Engineering Corp.
