Spanish banking giant Santander said Monday that it will raise up to $7.3 billion through an initial public offering of shares in its Brazilian subsidiary.
If it prices at the top of the range, the Santander sale could match the $7.3 billion raised by China State Construction Engineering Corp. in July and would be the biggest IPO in the U.S. since Visa’s $17.9 billion sale in March last year.
Santander /quotes/comstock/06x!csan (ES:SAN 10.92, -0.14, -1.22%) /quotes/comstock/13*!std/quotes/nls/std (STD 15.10, -0.39, -2.39%) , which filed plans for the IPO earlier in September, said it will sell shares equivalent to 16.2% of the division, which will be traded in Brazil and the U.S.
The bank expects to raise a total of between 11.55 billion Brazilian reais and 13.13 billion reais ($6.39 billion to $7.26 billion).
The sale will be in the form of 525 million units valued at between 22 and 25 reais. Each unit will consist of 55 common shares and 50 preferred shares in the division, Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A.
The offer is expected to price on Oct. 6 and will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange a day later and in Sao Paulo on Oct. 8.
Shares in Santander fell 1.5% in early trading Monday as most European banks lost ground. Also see Europe Markets.
Santander has previously said it plans to use some of the proceeds to open around 600 new branches in Brazil by 2013, expanding its network in the country by almost a third.
It’s already invested heavily in the region in the last several years, including acquiring ABN Amro’s Brazilian business when the Dutch bank was split up two years ago.
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