Spain's Santander, part of a trio of banks that plans to bid for ABN AMRO, has posted a 21% rise in first-quarter net profit.
Helped by growing loans in Europe and Latin America, Spain's largest bank said net profit came in at E1.80 billion.
This was slightly ahead of analysts' forecasts of E1.76 billion.
Europe's fourth-largest bank has been expanding in America in recent years, and it bought British mortgage lender Abbey in 2004.
