Santander’s new chairwoman promises continuity

Ana Botín, the new executive chairwoman of Banco Santander, sent a message of continuity and reassurance to shareholders on Monday, promising to maintain the Spanish bank’s broader strategy as set out by her late father.

Emilio Botín, who built Santander from a small regional lender into one of the world’s largest banking groups, died last Tuesday at the age of 79. The board named Ms Botín as his successor only a day later, making her the fourth member of the family to lead Santander.

In her first public appearance since his death, she told an extraordinary meeting of shareholders that the bank was entering a “new phase of our growth in profits”. Ms Botín added: “The group has the capital base, balance sheet strength and capacity for revenue generation necessary to consolidate the growing and sustainable development of our results.”

She highlighted “positive developments in revenues, cost control and the falling cost of credit” as well as the recent decline in the group’s bad loan ratio. “At this time, as the conclusion of the third quarter is already close, I can tell you that the positive trends in group results are continuing,” Ms Botín said.

Referring to her father as “our former chairman”, she paid tribute to Mr Botín as the man who “made Santander the number one bank in the eurozone, and one of the top 10 banks worldwide in market capitalisation”. She added: “My ambition is to continue this success story, to which I will dedicate my greatest efforts.”

The meeting in the Spanish city of Santander was called long before Mr Botín’s death, to allow shareholders to vote on the bank’s plan to buy back the 25 per cent of its Brazil operations that it does not already own. The € 4.7bn transaction was announced in April, and comes at a 20 per cent premium to Santander Brazil’s undisturbed share price.

Ms Botín said the deal showed Santander’s confidence in Brazil, pointing out that the group still had potential to broaden its activities in the country, for example by extending credit to new segments of the market and a new focus on financing large infrastructure projects.

At the same time, she insisted that the Brazilian buyback should not be seen as a departure from the bank’s so-called subsidiary model. The deal, Ms Botín said, “does not in any way undermine the group’s policy of having subsidiaries listed on stock exchanges”. Santander has said repeatedly that it wants to list the bank’s UK arm in the coming years - the operation that was led by Ms Botín herself until last week.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014