Banco Santander SA, Spain’s biggest bank, offered as much as 1.7 billion pounds ($2.52 billion) to buy more than 300 bank branches from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and bolster its existing British network, according to a person familiar with the plans.

A transaction may be concluded within weeks, said the person, who declined to be identified because the details are confidential. Santander has presented an offer and doesn’t know when the tender process will end, the Santander, Spain-based lender said on Friday in a statement.
The branch network would “fit like a glove” for Santander, Matias Inciarte, a vice chairman at the bank, said on Thursday. Santander has boosted its presence in the UK with acquisitions of lenders including Alliance & Leicester Plc since taking over Abbey National in 2004. It has 1,300 UK outlets. The disposal follows a European Union ruling last year which forced the Edinburgh-based bank to shed outlets as a consequence of 45.5 billion pounds received in state aid.
The sale is “yet another nail in the coffin of the diverse financial services sector which consumers have long benefited from,” said Rob MacGregor, national officer of the Unite trade union. “On the basis of market competition on the high street, this sale is bad news.”
Officials at RBS and Santander declined to comment on the price offered.
Santander added 276,000 new British bank account customers in the first quarter as it rebranded 1,000 Abbey and Bradford & Bingley branches with its own name. Santander was Britain’s third largest deposit-taker with 25 million customers and the UK’s second-largest lender by stock of mortgages last year.
(Source: Bloomberg)