Santander to download 49% of Polish business participation in Erste for 7 million euros

Banco Santander has agreed to sell about 49% of his shares in his Polish banking business, Santander Polka, in Austrian Bank Erste Group for € 6.8 million ($ 7.7 million).

In addition, ERSTE will acquire 50% of the Santander Polka Asset Management Business (TFI), which is currently not owned by the bank for 0.2 million euros, contributing the total value of the All-Bash transaction to 7 million euros ($ 7.9 million).

The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of 2025, depending on the usual conditions and the regulatory approval.

Santander will retain about 13% of Santander Polka and plans to fully acquire the Santander Polka Consumer Bank by purchase of the remaining 60% participation of Santander Polka before closing.

The agreed transaction price is 584 zlotys per action, which represents a premium of 7.5% at the closing price of May 2, 2025 by Santander Polka.

Erste will finally fund cash purchase with “internal resources”, canceling its expected repurchase for actions of € 700 million and temporarily reducing their dividend payments.

Santander hopes to obtain a net capital gain of a net capital of 2 million euros for sale.

Next to the capital transaction, Santander and Erste have agreed to enter into a strategic cooperation that covers corporate and investment banking services (CIB) and payment services.

The collaboration will include a model based on the derivation that allows institutions to take advantage of their respective regional strengths, offering localized solutions and market information to corporate and institutional clients.

Santander will also provide ERSTE customers access to their World CIB platforms throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and America.

In the field of payments, the two banks are intended to explore opportunities for ERSTE to use Santander’s payment infrastructure, including the services offered by the Santander Pagonxt platform, with the potential of expanding access to the post-transaction of Santander Polka.

After the transaction, Banco Santander aims to return part of the capital to shareholders.

It intends to distribute approximately 3.2 million euros through shared rewards, equivalent to 50% of the capital released.

This would contribute to the wider objective of the group of up to 10 million euros from 2025 and 2026 of gains and surplus capital, with the possibility of passing this objective based on the conditions of the market and the regulatory approval.

The bank provides that the agreement will be the profit by action accumulated for 2027-2028, by means of a combination of organic growth, repurchase of selective actions and acquisitions aligned with its strategic and return criteria.

The executive president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín, stated: “This transaction is another key step in our strategic approach to the creation of shareholders’ value, which is based on the acceleration of our platform strategy through a transformation and growing the group scale in geographies with highly connected markets.