Net profits surge 4.4% for Abbey’s parent Santander

Santander owner of Abbey reported a surge of 4.4 percent in its third-quarter net profits to 2.21 billion Euros from 2.11 billion a year previous. The profit boost came as the Spain’s largest bank focused on the takeover of Brazil’s Banco Real from ABN Amro and retail banking.

Spain’s Santander recently acquired the UK’s Alliance & Leicester as well as the deposits and branches of Bradford & Bingley that was nationalized earlier this year. Santander has also agreed to buy the US bank Sovereign Bancorp. It’s now said that the Abbey owner will concentrate on rebuilding its core capital to compete with US and European banks that have been recapitalized by their governments.

The core capital of Santander was at 6.31 percent at the end of September, although the banks executives recognized that due to the recent 5 billion Euro purchases that this would drop below 6 percent. The bank also added that they wanted to boost the ratio up by 7 percent or more by the end of 2009.

At 0915 GMT today (October 28) shares in Santander rose 0.1 percent to 6.98 euro’s although in earlier trade they shot up 8 percent.

Source: FT