The Spanish Santander Bankhas insisted that it will analyze the process of selling Banamex by its current owner, the American Citi Groupalthough so far no additional information is available.
Within the framework of the presentation of results, in Madrid, for the first quarter of 2022, the CEO of the group, Jose Antonio Alvarezrecalled that the president of Santander, Ana Botinhas mentioned the conditions and requirements to participate in the process.
Let’s analyze the transaction. Nothing to add at this time, because we have no information other than what is already public, and the process has not officially started,” he noted.
He mentioned that the Banamex operation is not yet launched. “These operations are launched when you are invited and you have to sign what is called an NDA, once you sign, they let you access the data, and then at that moment you will know who is interested or who is not.”
There would be options to finance
The CEO of Santander commented that there would be multiple options and a lot of flexibility to finance such an operation, in case it was decided to participate, but reiterated that it would not be through an issue of shares.
“We established some criteria that are maintained, that were very clear, profitability criteria (…) and some criteria that there was no issue of shares. How is this financed in a group like Santander? There are multiple options and a lot of flexibility, when the operation occurs, it is not tomorrow’s operation (…) I don’t know at what speed they want to run the process, but we have defined these conditions and those conditions are maintained, ”he emphasized.
Last February, within the framework of the presentation of 2021 results, the president of Santander, Ana Botín, confirmed the group’s interest in participating in the Banamex sale process.
“Mexico is one of our main markets and we hope to be part of that process when it begins, which is expected to be in a few months,” he said on that occasion, while ruling out an issue of shares.
Last week, the president of Santander was visiting Mexico, and held a private meeting with the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the National Palace.
In Mexico, Santander is the second largest bank by asset size, only below BBVA.