Santander to take control of Kredyt Bank in Poland
THE Eurozone’s biggest bank Santander is doubling its bet on Poland, Europe’s most resilient economy, by taking over a unit of Belgian lender KBC to create a business worth about €5bn (£4.24bn).
Spain’s Santander will combine KBC’s Kredyt Bank with Bank Zachodni WBK to turn the unit it bought just last year into Poland’s number three lender.
“It’s a smart deal because Santander gains scale and synergies with minimum capital outflow,” said Andrea Filtri, analyst at Mediobanca.
Under the deal with KBC, Zachodni will issue 6.96 of its own shares for every 100 in Kredyt Bank, valuing the KBC unit at $1.37bn (£866m) based on current share prices, which is about a third more than Kredyt Bank’s value before yesterday.