Santander has approached its fellow Spanish banking group Sabadell about a takeover of TSB, its British high street bank.
Sky News has learnt that Santander is among the parties which have expressed an interest in a potential deal, months after its boss denied that it was seeking to offload the UK’s fifth-largest retail bank.
City sources said on Wednesday that Santander had not tabled a formal offer for TSB, and was not certain to do so.
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However, the fact that it has contacted Sabadell about a possible transaction involving TSB suggests that Ana Botin, the Santander chair, may be open again to expanding its presence in Britain’s high street banking market.
The extent of the overlap between the two companies’ UK branch networks was unclear on Wednesday morning.
Santander, which like other banks has been engaged in an extensive branch closure programme for some time, now has roughly 350 UK branches, while TSB operates roughly half that number.
The value that TSB, which was acquired by Sabadell in 2015 from Lloyds Banking Group, might attract in any takeover is also unclear.
Sabadell is in the middle of attempting to thwart a hostile takeover by rival Spanish bank BBVA – a deal revealed by Sky News last year – with a disposal of TSB said to be on the cards regardless of whether or not that bid is successful.
Ms Botin insisted that the UK remains a core market for Santander in the wake of speculation that she might sanction a sale of the business.
The company recently confirmed a Sky News report that Sir Tom Scholar, the former top Treasury official sacked by Liz Truss during her brief premiership, was joining the bank’s UK arm as its next chairman.
NatWest Group, which recently returned to full private ownership, was reported to have submitted an offer worth about £11bn for Santander UK.
No discussions are ongoing about such a deal.
NatWest, Barclays and HSBC have also been touted as…
