The bank’s six acquisitions in the last four months and new capital rules have fuelled speculation the bank will spin off its UK arm his Autumn but a fragile stock market is thought to have made the bank nervous about such a move, the Mail on Sunday reported yesterday.
The bank has been working on flotation plans with advisers from Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, with another three banks, including Nomura, pitching for business.
Santander has spun off businesses before, such as its Brazilian banking operation, which raised $8bn (£5.1bn) last year. It has also made several acquisitions recently, including buying 318 bank branches from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and two US car loan books from HSBC and Citigroup.
Santander is also understood to want to buy 96 of the 265 Halifax branches axed in the summer by Lloyds Banking Group and is considering picking up the agencies recently axed by Nationwide.
City observers view the flotation as the only way Santander can fund its continuing growth plans.
