PHILADELPHIA, June 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. ("Sovereign") , parent company of Sovereign Bank, announced today that Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. ("Santander") has informed Sovereign that it has commenced making open-market purchases of Sovereign stock in reliance on SEC Rule 10b5-1, and that it will continue to make Rule 10b5-1 purchases from time to time. Sovereign cannot predict the price, volume or timing of any Santander purchases. Under the terms of the Investment Agreement between Sovereign and Santander, Santander has the right to increase its interest in Sovereign from 19.8% of outstanding shares to 24.99% of outstanding shares through these open market purchases.
Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., ("Sovereign") , is the parent company of Sovereign Bank, an $83 billion financial institution with nearly 800 community banking offices, over 2,000 ATMs after giving effect to the recently announced branding agreement in which Sovereign ATMs will be placed in CVS/pharmacy locations and approximately 12,000 team members with principal markets in the Northeast United States. Sovereign offers a broad array of financial services and products including retail banking, business and corporate banking, cash management, capital markets, wealth management and insurance. Sovereign is the 18th largest banking institution in the United States. For more information on Sovereign Bank, visit http://www.sovereignbank.com/ or call 1-877-SOV-BANK.
Note: "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this press release regarding Sovereign Bancorp's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual future events to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.
