Spain's largest bank Santander today said it had reached an agreement with Alliance & Leicester to buy the UK bank.
Santander, which already owns the UK's Abbey bank, said the deal valued Alliance & Leicester at 1.3 billion pounds and represented a premium of 36.4 percent on the share price at which A&L closed at on July 11th.
Alliance & Leicester said earlier today it was in advanced talks on a possible takeover offer that would value it at 317 pence per share, or £1.3 billion ($2.6 billion).
The offer would be at 299p per share and include the right to get an 18p interim dividend, A&L said.