SCH finalising Abbey acquisition

MADRID (AFP) - Spain's biggest bank Banco Santander Central Hispano (SCH) said it was finalising its acquisition of Britain's Abbey National to create the world's tenth-largest bank.
Abbey National is to become a 100 percent subsidiary of the Santander group following the merger which was announced in late July.
SCH will swap one new Santander share for one ordinary Abbey share and pay Abbey shareholders an additional 31 pence (0.44 euros) per share, the SCH statement reiterated.
Santander's new shares will be quoted on the Madrid stock market from next Tuesday while SCH is set to seek a secondary listing in London.
Britain's Financial Services Authority said earlier this month it had approved the Spanish bank taking control of Abbey, while the Bank of Spain also gave the green light.
The 8.5-billion-pound (12.2-billion-euro, 15.8-billion-dollar) deal was unanimously approved by SCH's shareholders last month.

11/12/2004 - 19:30 GMT - AFP