Banco Santander Backs Guidance in Effort to Allay 'Brexit' Concerns -- Update

By Jeannette Neumann 

MADRID -- Banco Santander SA reiterated its financial targets for this year to head off deepening investor anxiety about the effect of "Brexit" on the Spanish bank's profitability.

Santander generates around one-quarter of its net profit in the U.K. and investors have pummeled its shares since Britons voted to exit the European Union.

Investors are concerned about how a sustained fall in the pound will hit Santander's earnings when they are reported in euros and how Brexit will dampen British economic growth, which could diminish demand for mortgages and the other products the bank sells in the U.K.

Despite those concerns, the bank said it does "not anticipate that recent events will have a material impact on Grupo Santander accounts in 2016."

Santander reiterated its target of reaching a capital ratio by December 2018 of more than 11% under international regulations known as "fully loaded" Basel III criteria and said that earnings per share this year will be above those of last year.

"All commercial and financial targets for this year are reiterated," Santander said in a regulatory filing published Monday evening.

Santander's shares closed down 2.5% on Monday after plummeting 20% on Friday. Banks based in the U.K. have faced sharper drops.

Even before Brexit woes hit, Santander and other European banks had several open battle fronts, including low and negative interest rates and historically sluggish demand for loans.

Santander and other lenders have tried to boost lackluster profitability by cutting costs. Santander had previously announced that it would close 450 bank branches in Spain and lay off or reassign around 1,380 employees.

In the regulatory filing on Monday, Santander said those restructuring efforts would cost the bank around EUR500 million, or about $550 million, in the second quarter of this year.

Those costs are offset by a sale of a stake it holds in Visa, leading to a total charge of EUR250 million in the second quarter, the bank said.

Santander aims to offset the remainder of the restructuring costs by the end of 2016.

Write to Jeannette Neumann at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 27, 2016 14:11 ET (18:11 GMT)

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