The US investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has become the main shareholder of Santander and BBVA by declaring a 7.46% stake in each of the entities whose combined value exceeds 7,400 million euros, according to the CNMV records.
The most significant shareholding escalation has occurred in Santander, where the US bank has gone from not declaring any participation to reaching the new percentage and exceeding Blackrock's shareholding, which has 5.42%, and the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, which has 3% through Norges Bank.
The movement has been made through hundreds of derivative operations recently notified to the CNMV, most of them consisting of purchase options on dates ranging from this month to 2032. The movements are made mostly through a company based in London.
The purchases of shares in Santander reach a value of 3,441 million euros at market price. The bank's shares closed yesterday at 2.77 euros and the market capitalization stood at 46,510 million euros.
In the case of BBVA, 7.46% has also been reached practically at once, since to date the US bank only had 0.76% of the capital. The investment reaches a value of 3,962 million euros after BBVA shares closed at a price of 5.49 euros. The bank is worth 53,120 million euros on the stock market.
Goldman Sachs also surpasses Blackrock as the leading shareholder, which has held 5.9% of the capital for more than two years. BBVA's shareholding is quite diluted and these two investors are the only ones that exceed 3%.
Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is based in New York and manages assets of 2.5 trillion euros, ahead of Blackrock, which manages a portfolio of 10 trillion dollars.
