Abbey Nat. Share Discussion Threads

[mclellan] 26/7/2004 11:09

too soon to tell, probably

[ravisingla] 26/7/2004 11:07

so does anyone think its going to get any higher than 550p, or time to sell?

[feelinlucky] 26/7/2004 11:07

Just to keep u lot smiling.

There were 11 people hanging on to a single rope that suspended them from a helicopter trying to bring them to safety. Ten were men; one was a woman.
They all decided that one person would have to let go because if they didn't, the rope would break and all of them would die.

No one could decide who it should be. Finally the woman gave a really touching speech, saying how she would give up her life to save the others, because women were used to giving things up for their husbands and children and giving in to men.

All of the men started clapping.

[timc] 26/7/2004 11:00

Unbelievable-Not only do shareholders get stuffed a half hearted turkey of a deal. but the CFO manages to negotiate his way off to British Land as their CEO!!!

[the knowing] 26/7/2004 10:51

Wasn't city bank supposed to be interested as well ?

[corpbull] 26/7/2004 10:48

Deal is very bad!! for all shareholders. Board members are not working in the interest of shareholders!!! Reject the deal and sack the clowns!! when it is put forward. They might agree but they cannot accept it, if we vote not to.

[fouroaks] 26/7/2004 10:46

grossone - surely it is only a recommended offer at this time, it has to be voted by shareholders?

[mclellan] 26/7/2004 10:45

Needs a white night (not on a black horse!) to come to the rescue of the shareholders!

[domtheone] 26/7/2004 10:45

feelin lucky, Lloyds is always down so I wouldn't read to much into it! LOL!

[fouroaks] 26/7/2004 10:44

£144m loss becomes £350m half-year profit - last time Abbey showed a profit the price was around £8 if my memory serves me right?

[alexiskb1] 26/7/2004 10:43

mmm... south america... nice amigo. guess they are tapping into venezuelan oil money instead of the yanks

[grossone] 26/7/2004 10:42

as I said done deal at a bad price, shareholders stuffed again, and left with shares in a Spanish/South American bank??

No thanks.

[umitw] 26/7/2004 10:41

Has the deal been done, if so why is the stock being dumped?

[fouroaks] 26/7/2004 10:39

In the news list above !!!

[feelinlucky] 26/7/2004 10:38

Fouroaks..where did u find this?

[fouroaks] 26/7/2004 10:37

LONDON (AFX) - Abbey National PLC six months to June 30 2004
Totalincome - 1.26 bln stg vs 1.39 bln
Pretax profit - 350 mln stg vs loss 144 mln
EPS - 13.0 pence vs loss per share 12.0
Interim div - 8.33 pence, unchanged

[markth] 26/7/2004 10:37

It's a cash/paper deal, with a special dividend of 25p, an extra divi of 6p, and one Santander share, which purports to value each Abbey share at £6.03.

The problem is that, there's no collar on the Santander share price under the terms of the deal. That means, since the acquisition is dilutive of Santander's earnings until 2006, that Santander's share price may fall, causing the deal to be much less attractive. The fact that Abbey's price has gone down shows that the market doesn't like the terms.

Based on takeover premiums seen in the past for banks, this is NOT a good deal for shareholders, even if it were 603p in cash I would not be happy. I wonder why this board is recommending it. Worryingly, I doubt there will be other suitors (certainly not in the UK) so this looks like the end of the road unless the shareholders bounce this.

[feelinlucky] 26/7/2004 10:36

July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Santander Central Hispano SA, the largest bank in Spain and Latin America, agreed to buy Abbey National Plc of the U.K. for 8.3 billion pounds ($15.3 billion) to expand in Europe's largest consumer credit market.

The Spanish company will offer one share for each share in London-based Abbey. Before the takeover Abbey will pay dividends totaling 31 pence a share, Abbey said in an Regulatory News Service statement. The offer is worth 560 pence a share, based on Friday's closing share price for Santander, Bloomberg calculations show.

Buying Abbey, the U.K.'s second-biggest mortgage lender, gives Santander 741 branches and about 18 million customers in Britain. Santander Chairman Emilio Botin, 69, is expanding in the region to help maintain earnings growth and meet his target for a 15 percent increase in net income this year.

``It's very rare that a foreign bank has an opportunity like this to get into a market like the U.K., and it's very much because of the particular problems Abbey has been having,'' said Simon Adamson, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. in London.

Abbey shares fell 5.5 percent to 548 pence at 10:28 a.m. London, after rising 18 percent to 580 pence Friday. Santander shares are suspended.

Abbey Chief Executive Officer Luqman Arnold, 54, who took over in October 2002, has been trying to turn around the bank after a failed expansion into corporate lending in the late 1990s that led to losses totalling 1.86 billion pounds in the past two years.

Top 10

The bank has forecast a 2004 profit after selling money-losing investments in bonds, aircraft leases and loans. Abbey said this month it won't need to set aside more money at its life insurance units, after 1.6 billion pounds of provisions in three years.

The purchase of Abbey would give Santander about 11 percent of the U.K.'s $1.37 trillion mortgage market, one of the fastest growing in Europe. Mortgage lending in Britain is climbing about 15 percent annually, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Santander, based in Santander on Spain's northern coast, is expanding in retail banking in Europe to help counter two years of declining earnings from Latin America. Botin in June told shareholders he expects net income this year to exceed 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), compared with 2.61 billion euros in 2003.

Santander said the purchase will make the bank the world's 10th largest by market capitalization, achieving a goal to join the top 10 that Botin has stated as recently as June.

Consumer Finance

In the past seven years, Botin has expanded Santander through dozens of acquisitions, including the 12 billion-euro purchase of Banco Central Hispano SA in 1999. He spent more than 17 billion euros on takeovers and investments in Latin America.

The company in 2002 bought AKB Bank in Germany, the country's largest independent auto financing company. This year it agreed to buy a Polish finance company and to pay about $514 million for DnB NOR ASA's Elcon, a Nordic auto leasing business.

The Abbey purchase is the largest banking deal in Europe since France's Credit Agricole SA bought Credit Lyonnais for 16.6 billion euros in June 2003.

Abbey is being advised by Morgan Stanley. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. are advising Santander. Abbey's corporate brokers are UBS AB and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

[feelinlucky] 26/7/2004 10:34

Lloyds is down.....I wonder why!!!! lol

[feelinlucky] 26/7/2004 10:31

Corpbull..

Im not sure whether this is a ploy by Chief to entice others to come forward, now that this recommendation is accepted.

I honestly see these being bid to 7 quid ...only to be scuppered by the Commissioners once again.

[corpbull] 26/7/2004 10:29

Come in and Join the fun!!! LLOY, BOI, CITIBANK!! Put your offer to the shareholders not the board!!! They are the clowns of 2004!!!

[corpbull] 26/7/2004 10:26

Yes!!, I hope when the deal is put to shareholders, they will throw it in their faces. I will not agree for sure!!! I would instead vote to sack the whole board.

[feelinlucky] 26/7/2004 10:25

Its not over yet..

Watch Lloyds scupper the deal.
Its going to be a fun week.

Trust me...

[scotswhaehae] 26/7/2004 10:25

not the most inspired bulletin board at the moment! santander have seen the ANL books so who can blame them for the modest bid...buying above 560p was always a huge risk...just move on to LLOY where there is REAL value!