Santander BanCorp Declares Common Shares Dividend for the Fourth Quarter
25 November 2004 - 12:54AM
PR Newswire (US)
Santander BanCorp Declares Common Shares Dividend for the Fourth
Quarter SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
The Board of Directors of Santander BanCorp (NYSE: SBP; LATIBEX:
XSBP), declared a cash dividend amounting to $0.16 per common
share. The dividend shall be payable on January 3, 2005 to
shareholders of record as of December 10, 2004. Jose R. Gonzalez,
President and CEO of Santander BanCorp stated "We are extremely
pleased that we have been able to increase our dividend by $0.05
per common share from $0.11 to $0.16 per share. This increase is
due to the company's improving profitability since 2003." Cash
dividends on common shares are eligible for direct reinvestment
under the Company's Dividend Reinvestment and Cash Purchase Plan.
For additional information on how to participate in Santander
BanCorp's Dividend Reinvestment and Cash Purchase Plan,
shareholders should contact our transfer agent and registrar,
Mellon Investor Services LLC, at (800) 851-9677. Santander BanCorp
is a publicly held financial holding company that is traded on the
New York Stock Exchange and on Latibex (Madrid Stock Exchange). It
has three wholly owned subsidiaries, Banco Santander Puerto Rico,
Santander Securities Corporation and Santander Insurance Agency.
Banco Santander Puerto Rico has been operating in Puerto Rico for
27 years. It offers a full array of services through 65 branches in
the areas of commercial, mortgage and consumer banking, supported
by a team of over 1,600 employees. Santander Securities offers
securities brokerage services and provides portfolio management
services through its wholly owned subsidiary Santander Asset
Management Corporation. Santander Insurance Agency offers life,
health and disability coverage as a corporate agent and also
operates as a general agent. For more information, visit the
Company's website at http://www.santandernet.com/. Grupo Santander
(SAN.MC, STD.N) ranks amongst the first ten principal banks in the
world and is the largest bank in the Euro Zone by market
capitalization. Founded in 1857, Grupo Santander currently has 59
million clients, 10,000 offices and presence in over 40 countries.
It is the first Financial Group in Spain and Latin America and
maintains an important business activity in Europe, where Grupo
Santander had reached a prominent presence in the United Kingdom
with the acquisition of Abbey National. Grupo Santander owns the
third largest banking group in Portugal and additionally owns
Santander Consumer Finance, a leading consumer finance franchise in
Germany, Italy and seven other European countries. In Latin
America, Grupo Santander maintains a leading position where it
manages over $114,000 million in volume of business (loans,
deposits and off- balance sheet assets under management) and has
4,052 offices in ten countries, serving more than 12 million
individual clients and approximately half a million small and
medium sized companies. As of the third trimester of 2004, Grupo
Santander obtained a net attributable income of $1,225 million in
Latin America, an increase of over 8.8% for the same period of last
year. DATASOURCE: Santander BanCorp CONTACT: Maria Calero,
+1-787-751-6640, or Evelyn Vega, +1-787-777-4546, both for
Santander BanCorp Web site: http://www.santandernet.com/
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