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The Times' Rorshach Geithner Story
Apr 27 20099:04am EDT -
Sinking Animal Spirits
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Counter-cyclical Urban Policy
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Be Your Own Counterfeiter
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Being Tim Geithner
Apr 25 200912:04pm EDT -
Notes From a Press Conference Naif
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What Good is the News?
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Stressful Enough
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Not Regretting the Pound
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Introducing the New Ford Squeeze
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Non-Economic Questions of the Day
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The Stress Test Blind Alley
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Happy Hour
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Recovery Without Rebalancing
Apr 23 20096:04pm EDT -
The Shape of Your Recession
Apr 23 20095:04pm EDT
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Emilio Botin for Citigroup CEO!
Chalk up another victory for Santander's Emilio Botín. When I said last month that he was the big winner in the Battle of ABN Amro, I was concentrating mainly on Banco Real, the Brazilian bank that Santander now owns. But Santander also ended up with ABN's unloved Italian arm, Antonveneta. ABN overpaid for the bank in 2005, after getting caught up in a bidding war with Italy's BPI, and ended up buying the bank at a valuation of €7.6 billion. By the time Santander got it, two years later, the Spaniards valued the franchise at only €6.6 billion, including its respected Interbanca merchant banking business.
But there's a sucker born every minute, and Botín has now managed to sell Antonveneta, sans Interbanca, for an astonishing €9 billion to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. And boy is the market punishing MPS for agreeing to such a ridiculous acquisition: MPS is now valued at little more than €9 billion itself. Meanwhile, check out the chart of Santander's share price: the Spanish bank is now worth $136 billion, compared to a market cap of $160 billion for Citigroup. Now there's an idea: maybe Santander should buy Citigroup! If anybody's capable of running an enormous international bank, it's Emilio Botín.
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