Acquisition

Banco Santander Central Hispano SA 14 September 2005 SANTANDER CONSUMER ACQUIRES CONTROL OF INTERBANCO AND INTEGRATES ITS BUSINESS IN PORTUGAL WITH SAG Santander Consumer will acquire 50.001% of Interbanco for EUR 110 million and form an alliance with SAG, Interbanco's other shareholder. Interbanco will integrate with Hispamer Portugal and Santander Consumer will hold a 60% stake in the combined company and SAG the remaining 40%. The new company will be the leader in auto financing in Portugal. Santander Consumer and SAG will combine their operational car leasing businesses in Spain and Portugal in a new company that will assume their assets in this segment. Madrid, September 14, 2005 - Santander Consumer, of Grupo Santander, and SAG (Solucoes Automovel Globlais) of Portugal have reached an agreement to form an alliance to jointly carry out consumer and vehicle financing in Portugal, as well as operational car leasing in Spain and Portugal. In the first stage of this agreement, SAG will exercise its right of first refusal on the 50.001% of the capital of Interbanco that it does not already own. SAG will notify BCP, which owns this stake, that it is exercising this right and that Santander Consumer will acquire the stake under the same terms BCP had agreed for its sale to Societe Generale. Santander Consumer will pay EUR 110 million for this stake. Interbanco ended 2004 with assets of EUR 700 million. Following this acquisition, Santander Consumer and SAG will combine their consumer and vehicle finance businesses through the integration of Interbanco and Hispamer Portugal. Santander Consumer will hold 60% of the capital of the combined company and SAG the remaining 40%. The new company will be the market leader in auto financing in Portugal. In addition, both companies will combine in a new company their operational car leasing businesses in Spain and Portugal to carry out this business in the Iberian peninsula. The shareholdings in this company will be identical to those of the Portuguese consumer and auto financing company: 60% Santander Consumer and 40% SAG. This alliance in operational car leasing may also be extended to other markets. The final terms of these transactions are pending a valuation of the assets involved by an independent company, taking into account the respective 60% and 40% stakes of Santander Consumer and SAG. The agreement is subject to the approval of regulatory authorities. Santander Consumer is the Grupo Santander unit that specialises in consumer finance, with a presence in 12 European countries including Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland and Portugal. With 5,051 employees and 255 branches, Santander Consumer finances 900,000 new and used automobiles a year. At the end of June 2005, Santander Consumer had assets of EUR 35.425 million. The unit registered net attributable income of EUR 237 million in the first half, an increase of 45.8%. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange QUSRNRVORKAAR
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