Banco Santander continues its strategy of buying back its bank branches. The financial institution has disbursed €30 million to buy back fourteen branches that it had previously sold under a sale and leaseback contract to Deutsche Bank, according to El Economista.
The amount invested by the company chaired by Ana Botín had sold the batch of bank branches in 2018 for an amount similar to the current disbursement. The operation was carried out through the socimi Uro Property, which sold the fourteen branches to Lerma Investments, a company belonging to Deutsche Bank.
It is estimated that the German entity, which sold the Spanish group the company Lerma Investments to execute the transaction, would have received around 25 million euros until 2033 in rental income from the branches.
This operation is part of the branch buyback strategy that Banco Santander has been promoting in recent years. Last October, the bank formalised the acquisition of 381 branches in Spain from the insurance company Axa. The French group paid 308 million euros for these assets in 2015 and, since then, has been leasing them to the Spanish bank. Banco Santander bought them back for €290 million.
