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Santander completes Alliance & Leicester purchase

Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:59pm EDT

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MADRID, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Spain's Banco Santander (SAN.MC) said on Friday it had completed its 1.3 billion pound ($2.3 billion) purchase of Britain's Alliance & Leicester ALLL.L.

Santander paid for the deal by swapping one newly-issued Santander share for three ordinary A&L shares. It issued 140.95 million new shares, each worth 11.23 euros, to raise 1.58 billion euros to pay for the British lender.

Santander had pursued A&L for some time but after a A&L's share price collapsed from over 1,000p a year ago A&L agreed to be bought for a knock-down price of 317p.

The euro zone's biggest bank will release the new shares on to the market on Oct. 13 and on the London Stock Exchange the following day.

Minutes after Santander's statement, credit ratings agencies Fitch [ID:nWNA6371] and Standard & Poor's [ID:nWNA6364] both raised their rating on the British bank. (Reporting by Jesus Aguado; writing by Ben Harding; Editing by David Cowell)



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