Santander closes the purchase of Webster in the United States

Banco Santander expects to complete this Thursday the acquisition of the American Webster Financial, a little more than six months after announcing the operation, once all necessary authorizations have been obtained from both the supervisors and the shareholders of the North American company.

According to what the entity chaired by Ana Botín announced at the beginning of the month, after receiving the green light from the Federal Reserve of the United States, Santander estimates that the legal merger will materialize throughout the day today. Before the session opens this Thursday, S&P Dow Jones will remove Webster from the S&P MidCap 400 index, where it will be replaced by Sun Communities.

The project received the support of Webster’s shareholders at the end of May and was subsequently authorized by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on June 12, as well as by the European Central Bank on July 21.

The consummation of this purchase comes a few weeks after Santander completed the acquisition of TSB, the other major corporate operation announced for this fiscal year with the aim of strengthening its presence in the United Kingdom.

The transaction is moving forward despite pressures from U.S. senators Bernie Moreno and Tim Sheehy, who tried to block the operation claiming that Spain has not always been a “reliable ally” of the United States.

With this integration, Santander will strengthen its business in the U.S. market and accelerate the achievement of its financial goals. Once the integration is completed, the group expects its activity in that country to reach a return on tangible equity (ROTE) close to 18% by 2028.

In addition, the purchase is expected to result in an increase in earnings per share of around 7% to 8% and a return on invested capital close to 15% in 2028.

After the closing, most of Webster’s business lines will be incorporated into Santander Bank, the group’s banking subsidiary in the United States. Until the operation is formalized, both entities have continued to operate separately.

Since May, the integration teams of Santander and Webster have been collaborating in the preparation for the legal closing of the transaction, for which they have defined a set of 225 milestones considered critical.