Sant Uk.10te% Regulatory News (SAN)

1 Sep 2006 12:00

Abbey National PLC01 September 2006 Friday 1st September 2006 Abbey completes the sale of its life businesses to Resolution plc Abbey National plc ("Abbey") today confirms that it has completed the sale ofits life businesses to Resolution plc. Resolution has acquired Scottish Provident Limited, Scottish Mutual Assuranceplc, Scottish Provident International Life Assurance Limited, Scottish MutualInternational plc and Abbey National Life plc. Abbey retains all of its branch-based investment and asset management business,James Hay, its market-leading self-invested personal pension company, and itsWrap business. Antonio Horta-Osorio, Chief Executive of Abbey, said: "This is an excellenttransaction for Abbey. It has provided us with a clean exit from ownership ofthe life businesses and we are now focusing on delivering our ambitious plans togrow significantly our share of the UK investment and pensions market, throughboth the retail and intermediary channels." - Ends - Contacts Abbey: Matthew Young (Communications Director) 020 7756 4232 Stephanie Thatcher (Media Relations) 020 7756 4212 Peter Sutton / Bruce Rush (Investor Relations) 020 7756 4265 / 4275 Lehman Brothers Stephen Fox 020 7102 1000 Matt Cannon 020 7102 1000 Abbey and the flame logo are registered trademarks. Abbey and Santander Abbey is a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A.("Santander") (SAN.MC, STD.N). Santander is the largest bank in the Euro Zone bymarket capitalisation and one of the largest worldwide. Founded in 1857,Santander has €818,100 million in assets and €976,500 million in managed funds,67 million customers, 10,300 offices and a presence in 40 countries. It is thelargest financial group in Spain and Latin America, and is a major playerelsewhere in Europe, including the United Kingdom (through Abbey) and Portugal,where it is the third largest banking group. Through Santander Consumer Finance,it also operates a leading consumer finance franchise in Germany, Italy, Spainand nine other European countries. As of the first half of 2006, Santanderrecorded €3,216 million in net attributable profits, 26% more than in the sameperiod of the previous year. Disclaimer: Abbey and Santander both caution that this press release may containforward-looking statements. The US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of1995 contains a safe harbour for forward-looking statements on which we rely inmaking such statements in documents filed with the US Securities and ExchangeCommission. Such forward looking statements are found in various placesthroughout this press release. Words such as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "aims" and "plans" and similar expressions are intended toidentify forward looking statements, but they are not the exclusive means ofidentifying such statements. Forward looking statements include, withoutlimitation, statements concerning our future business development and economicperformance. These forward looking statements are based on management's currentexpectations, estimates and projections and both Abbey and Santander cautionthat these statements are not guarantees of future performance. We also cautionreaders that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differmaterially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentionsexpressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but arenot limited to, (1) inflation, interest rate, exchange rate, market and monetaryfluctuations; (2) the effect of, and changes to, regulation and governmentpolicy; (3) the effects of competition in the geographic and business areas inwhich we conduct operations; (4) technological changes; and (5) our success atmanaging the risks of the foregoing. The foregoing list of important factorsis not exhaustive. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisionswith respect to Abbey or Santander, investors and others should carefullyconsider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and events. Suchforward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, andwe do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any of them, whether as aresult of new information, future events or otherwise. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange