British banking group Abbey National today said it had received a takeover approach from from the Spanish bank Santander Central Hispano (SCH).
SCH also announced it would hold a board meeting on Sunday "to evaluate the opportunity to take a decision with regard to Abbey National plc."
Within minutes of the news of a possible takeover bid, trading in the Spanish bank's shares was suspended, with its stock price 4.2% lower at €7.99.
Banco Santander Central Hispano (SCH) emerged five years ago from the merger of the Santander and Central Hispanoamericano banks to create the country's largest banking group and one of Europe's biggest, with the group comprising 103,000 employees in 2003, a third of whom are in Spain.
The company has an estimated 22 million customers in 30 countries and about 9,000 branches.
British home-loan specialist Abbey National is struggling to return to profitability after two years of heavy losses, which were fuelled by soaring bad debt at the company's wholesale banking unit.
In April, Abbey said it was on track to post annual pre-tax profits this year, after its core personal finance services business returned to the black in the first quarter.
