Emilio Botín, chairman of Santander, on Thursday pulled off an impressive deal by selling Banca Antonveneta, an Italian bank it had just acquired, for an instant 60 per cent profit. Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest bank, said it had acquired Banca Antonveneta from Santander for €9bn. Santander has only just received Antonveneta as part of the carve-up of ABN Amro. It had valued the Italian bank, which has a 3 per cent market share, at €6.6bn. As part of the deal with MPS, Santander will keep Antonveneta’s corporate banking division, which is separately valued at about €1bn. As a result, Santander estimates it has made an instant capital gain of about €3.4bn out of the sale.
