TIMELINE-Major Santander deals in last 10 years

Aug 17 (Reuters) - Spain's Santander (SAN.MC) has renewed talks to merge its U.S. operations with New York regional lender M&T Bank Corp (MTB.N), the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, as it targets overseas growth. [ID:nLDE67G09S]

Banco Santander was founded in 1857 by a group of Basque businessmen to finance trade with Latin America but it was not until the 1990s that it began to take on its current form.

In 1994, it bought retail bank Banesto (BTO.MC) and in 1999 it merged with Banco Central Hispano. Here are some of its major deals in the last 10 years:

April 2001 - Santander completes buyout of minority shares in Brazilian bank Banespa, bringing its stake to 97.1 percent. The Spanish bank had bought a 30 percent stake for $3.6 billion in Nov. 2000.

November 2004 - Santander buys Abbey National, Britain's second-largest mortgage lender, in a deal eventually valued at 9.65 billion pounds.

June 2006 - Santander pays $2.4 billion for near 20 percent stake in Sovereign Bancorp Inc and later boosts its stake to just under 25 percent, becoming its largest shareholder.

November 2007 - Santander agrees to sell Italy's Antonveneta before it has even bought it, snapping up a $13.2 billion offer from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) that hands it hefty gains. Deal is part of a three-way break-up of Dutch-based ABN AMRO, under which Santander gains ABN's Banco Real in Brazil and merges it with its Brazilian unit Banespa.

2008:

September - Santander says its Abbey unit to pay 612 million pounds for retail deposits and branch network of Bradford & Bingley, Britain's ninth biggest mortgage provider.

October - Santander completes purchase of British building society Alliance & Leicester (A&L) for 1.3 billion pounds.

2009:

January - Santander completes takeover of Sovereign Bancorp in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.9 billion when it was announced the previous October.

2010: June - Santander buys remaining 24.9 percent of its Mexican division from Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) for $2.5 billion.

July - Santander consolidates full service operation in Germany with acquisition of retail banking division of Sweden's SEB (SEBa.ST) for 555 million euros ($699 million).

August - Santander seals purchase of 318 UK branches from part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) for 1.65 billion pounds.

August - Santander renews talks to merge U.S. operations with New York regional lender M&T, according to the FT. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by David Holmes)