Company: BCDRF
Filing Date: 2025-05-05
Form Type: 6-K
Source: 0000950103-25-005720
Chunk: 2

Company: Banco Santander, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-05-05
Form: 6-K
Chunk 2
---
 to be the best
open financial services platform globally.

| · | In CIB, both Santander and Erste will                                                                                                     
 leverage each other’s regional strengths to offer local solutions and market insights for their respective corporate and institutional    
 clients via a referral model that will facilitate seamless client interactions and service offerings. Santander will also connect Erste's 
 clients with its global product platforms in the UK, Europe and the Americas and the banks will work together as preferred partners with  
 the aim of building strong, mutually beneficial relationships to maximize joint business opportunities.                                   |

| · | With Payments, the banks will explore                                                                                                       
 opportunities for Erste, including with Santander Polska post-completion, to leverage Santander’s payments capabilities and infrastructure, 
 including Santander’s PagoNxt business.                                                                                                     |

Santander’s strategy is focused on generating
sustainable value creation for its customers and shareholders, deploying shared platforms across each of its five global businesses that
offer the best customer experience at the lowest cost-to-serve, leveraging the group’s network and economies of scale.

Since it announced a new phase in value creation at its investor day in 2023, Santander has added 15 million customers, improved efficiency from 46.6% to 41.8% and generated a 62% increase in earnings per share.

Ana Botín, executive chair of Banco Santander, said,

"This transaction is another key step in our strategic focus on shareholder value creation which is based on both accelerating our platform strategy through ONE Transformation and growing the group's scale in geographies with highly connected markets.

For Santander, we crystallise value at highly attractive multiples. For Erste, they are acquiring an outstanding business with above all, a world class team, which I am confident will continue generating value for Santander Polska’s customers, employees and stakeholders.

We will deploy the capital generated from the transaction in line with our capital hierarchy, prioritizing profitable organic growth.

We plan to devote 50% of proceeds (c.€3.2 billion) to accelerate the delivery of our planned extraordinary shareholder buybacks to early 2026, as well as to potentially exceeding the previously announced total share buyback target of up to €10 billion given the attractiveness of buybacks at current valuations, subject to regulatory approvals 2.

Corporate Communications
Ciudad Grupo Santander, edificio Arrecife, planta 2
28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid).
comunicacion@gruposantander