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12th July, 2010
Santander buys SEB's German banking operations
Spanish bank Santander has signed an agreement to buy Swedish bank SEB's German business for 555 euros (£466.5m, $699m).
The sale represents around a quarter of SEB's business and will double the size of Santander's German branch network.
SEB has 173 branches in that country and 1 million customers.
It wants to concentrate on merchant banking and wealth management in Germany.
Santander's acquisition is its second major attempt at expanding its branch network in a month.
In June, Santander submitted an offer to buy the UK's Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) Williams & Glyn's subsidiary.
RBS is selling the unit - which includes 318 branches - after the European Commission ruled last year that it must dispose of the business as a condition of being bailed out by the UK government.
Santander already has a substantial presence on the UK High Street having bought Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley in the past two years.
Source: BBC News 12 June 2010
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