Santander Raising U.S. Capital (STD, SAN)

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: STD) has filed to raise up to $1 billion in debt securities in the United States for its subsidiary Santander Holdings USA, Inc.   Santander is the parent company of Sovereign Bank, which had approximately 700 community banking offices, more than 2,300 ATMs and 11,714 team members “employees) as of December 31, 2010, and it was located primarily in markets in the Northeastern United States.  Santander completed the acquisition of Sovereign in early 2009 and the company’s state of incorporation changed from Pennsylvania to Virginia.

The same can be in one or more offerings of senior or subordinated debt securities. The company’s “use of proceeds” is the common ‘for general corporate purposes’ in its prospectus.  The general definition includes debt reduction, possible acquisitions, stock repurchases and more.  The net proceeds may be temporarily invested or used to reduce short-term debt.

Santander did not signal that this was the last financing round ever.  The company specifically noted that it may engage in additional financings of a character and amount to be determined as the need arises.

Being a Spanish bank and raising money via the U.S. subsidiary is fairly impressive considering all of the turmoil in the lands of the PIIGS.  The afternoon pricing of Santander ADRs is up 3.7% at $12.10 today.

The full SEC filing is here.  We would note that there was a newswire release on Friday from Banco Santander Chile (NYSE: SAN) with the establishment of a US$5.5 billion Medium Term Notes Program, which also was listed being on a subordinated or unsubordinated basis.  Banco Santander S.A. is the majority holder of Banco Santander Chile with some 75% of the voting control.

JON C. OGG