04:29 AM EDT, 05/05/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Banco Santander (SAN) said Monday it has agreed to sell to Erste Group Bank a roughly 49% stake in Santander Bank Polska for 6.8 billion euros ($7.7 billion) and 50% of the Polish asset management business that Santander Polska does not own for 200 million euros, representing total all-cash consideration of 7 billion euros.

Santander said it will continue to own about 13% of Santander Polska. It also said it plans to take full ownership of Santander Consumer Bank Polska before the closing by acquiring the 60% stake owned by Santander Polska.

At the anticipated late 2025 completion of the deal, Santander expects a net capital gain of about 2 billion euros, it said.

The company said it plans to devote half of the proceeds from the deal for a shareholder buyback program, giving it the "potential to exceed the previously announced share buyback target."

The company expects the deal to be accretive to earnings per share by 2027 or 2028

Santander said it and Erste have also agreed to cooperate to leverage their corporate and investment banking assets, including allowing Erste to access Santander's payments platforms.