Email
How did Emilio Botín, who has died at the age of 79, build Santander from regional Spanish lender to global titan? One answer is an ability to make fools of rivals-cum-partners such as Fred Goodwin and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The giant €70bn bid for Dutch group ABN Amro is commonly thought of Goodwin's deal. It was, but RBS could only get the mad, top-of-the-market adventure off the ground as part of three-way consortium that included Belgium group Fortis and Santander. Each member of the trio got the assets it wanted – in Santander's case, ABN's operations in Italy and Brazil.
Weeks after completion, Botín flipped the Italian business, for which Santander had paid €6.6bn, for a €2.4bn profit. As for Fortis, like RBS, it needed a state bail-out.
;