Banco Santander : announces that it has reached agreement to acquire the listed Canadian company Carfinco Financial Group Inc

Banco Santander announces that it has reached agreement to acquire the listed Canadian company Carfinco Financial Group Inc. ("Carfinco") for an amount of 298 million Canadian dollars (approximately €210 million). Santander will pay 11.25 Canadian dollars per share, which represents a premium of 32% on the share price during the last 90 trading sessions. The board of directors of Carfinco has approved the transaction and will recommend to its shareholders that they vote in favour of the same at the general meeting to be called for such purpose.
The impact of the transaction on the Group's shareholders' equity is not significant.
Carfinco is a company specializing in automobile financing. This transaction gives continuity to the growth strategy in the consumer finance business.
It is expected that the transaction, which is subject to regulatory authorization, will be concluded in the second half of 2014.
Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), 16 September 2014

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