Chavez offers Santander $1.2 bln for bank: reports
MADRID (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is prepared to offer Banco Santander (SAN.MC) $1.2 billion for its local unit Banco de Venezuela, media reported on Wednesday.
Spanish newspapers quoted the Venezuelan press as saying Venezuela's offer could reach $1.2 billion, $600 million short of the Spanish bank's expectations.
Last Thursday, Chavez said he would nationalize Banco de Venezuela, one of the largest banks in the nation's financial system with $700 million invested in Venezuela operations.
Santander then said Friday that it was in talks with the Venezuelan government over the possible sale of its unit, having failed to reach an agreement with a group of interested Venezuelan private investors.
In the last two years Venezuela's Socialist government has taken over large swathes of the economy, including oil projects, telecommunications and steel and cement plants.
Banco de Venezuela is the country's third largest bank in terms of deposits and the fourth measured by its credit portfolio.
Analysts have valued the bank at between $1.6 and 1.8 billion.
El Economista said Santander had agreed a figure of $1.2 billion in sale talks with Venezuelan banker Victor Vargas, owner of Banco Occidental de Descuento.
A spokesman at Santander in Madrid declined to comment on the reports.
Chavez threatened to kick Spanish banks out of Venezuela last year in a diplomatic spat sparked by a dispute with Spain's king. But last month he patched up relations.
Spain's second largest bank, BBVA (BBVA.MC), also has assets in Venezuela, but has so far declined comment on the latest events.
(Reporting by Judy MacInnes; Editing by Paul Bolding)
