M&A Deal Summary

Banco Santander Acquires Island Finance

On January 23, 2006, Banco Santander acquired financial services company Island Finance from Wells Fargo for 735M USD

Acquisition Highlights
  • This is Banco Santander’s 2nd transaction in the Financial Services sector.
  • This is Banco Santander’s 2nd largest (disclosed) transaction.
  • This is Banco Santander’s 1st transaction in Puerto Rico.
Investment Fate
  • Island Finance was divested to a consortium of buyers in 2017.
  • Island Finance was sold to a consortium of financial buyers in 2025.

M&A Deal Summary

Date 2006-01-23
Target Island Finance
Sector Financial Services
Buyer(s) Banco Santander
Sellers(s) Wells Fargo
Deal Type Divestiture
Deal Value 735M USD

Target

Island Finance

San Juan, Puerto Rico
Island Finance is a consumer-finance company based in Puerto Rico that provides personal loans and real estate-secured lending to individuals via a network of branches across the island. Island Finance was formed in 1959 and is headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico

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Buyer(S) 1

Buyer

Banco Santander

Madrid, Spain

Category Company
Founded 1856
Sector Financial Services
Employees206,736
Revenue 63.8B EUR (2024)
DESCRIPTION

Banco Santander is a financial group operating principally in Spain, the UK, Portugal, and Brazil. Banco Santander is a provider of commercial and retail banking financial services. Banco Santander was founded in 1856 and is based in Madrid, Spain.


DEAL STATS #
Overall 2 of 10
Sector: Financial Services M&A 2 of 8
Type: Divestiture M&A Deals 1 of 2
Country: Puerto Rico M&A 1 of 1
Year: 2006 M&A 1 of 1
Size (of disclosed) 2 of 4
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2004-07-01 Abbey National

London, United Kingdom

Abbey National provides treasury, corporate, and wholesale banking products and services primarily in the United Kingdom. Abbey National was established in 1944 and is based in London.

Buy -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2008-10-12 Sovereign Bank

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Sovereign Bank is a regional US bank serving customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. In addition to full-service retail banking, Sovereign offers a broad array of financial services and products including business and corporate banking, cash management, capital markets, trust and wealth management, and insurance. Sovereign Bank is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Buy $1.9B

Seller(S) 1

SELLER

Wells Fargo

San Francisco, California, United States

Category Company
Founded 1852
Sector Financial Services
Employees222,544
Revenue 82.3B USD (2024)
DESCRIPTION
Wells Fargo's corporate headquarters in downtown San Francisco, California.
Wells Fargo's corporate headquarters in downtown San Francisco, California.

Wells Fargo is a diversified financial services company that provides retail, commercial and corporate banking services through banking stores and offices, the internet and other distribution channels to individuals, businesses and institutions in all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and in other countries. The company provides other financial services through subsidiaries engaged in various businesses, principally: wholesale banking, mortgage banking, consumer finance, equipment leasing, agricultural finance, commercial finance, securities brokerage and investment banking, insurance agency and brokerage services, computer and data processing services, trust services, investment advisory services, mortgage-backed securities servicing and venture capital investment. Wells Fargo was formed in 1852 and is based in San Francisco, California.


DEAL STATS #
Overall 1 of 16
Sector: Financial Services M&A 1 of 7
Type: Divestiture M&A Deals 1 of 15
Country: Puerto Rico M&A 1 of 3
Year: 2006 M&A 1 of 1
Size (of disclosed) 5 of 8
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2005-07-31 First Community Capital

Houston, Texas, United States

First Community Capital Corp., a financial service company.

Buy $124M
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2007-01-09 Placer Sierra Bancshares

Sacramento, California, United States

Placer Sierra Bancshares is a Northern California-based bank holding company for Placer Sierra Bank, with assets of $2.6 billion and more than 650 employees serving consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses from 50 locations throughout California. The bank has 32 branches in eight counties of Northern California (Placer, Sacramento, El Dorado, Sierra, Nevada, Amador, San Joaquin and Calaveras) and 18 locations in Southern California.

Buy -