Santander considers options for $8 billion stake in Polish unit, report says

(Reuters) -Spain's Santander is exploring options for its roughly $8 billion (7.3 billion euro) majority stake in its Polish unit, including a potential sale, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

    Santander shares closed up around 5% as other European banking stocks recovered from recent drops. Meanwhile, shares of the Polish unit, Santander Bank Polska, rose 6.5% after the Bloomberg report.

The Spanish bank declined to comment on the report.

One person familiar with the bank said divesting the whole stake or cutting it to just a majority could make sense, as the unit did not offer cross-business opportunities with other countries. The person was not aware of any plan to do so.

The lender owns a 62.2% stake in Santander Bank Polska after selling a 5.2% stake for 575 million euros in September.

A potential divestment in Poland would come at a moment when Santander, the euro zone's biggest lender by market value, is expanding its footprint in the U.S. in areas such as corporate and investment banking and its digital Openbank.

At the same time, it is reviewing its British presence as part of a regular assessment of its major markets, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters in January.

Bloomberg said in its report that deliberations over the Polish unit were preliminary and Santander could decide to keep the asset for longer or opt for a partial selldown of its stake.

Santander in Poland was trading at 1.53 times its book value on Tuesday, down from 1.8 times before the market sell-off linked to the announcement of tariffs in the U.S.

At its Polish unit, net profit in the fourth quarter rose 9% to 158 million euros thanks to a rise in lending income which offset rising costs related to foreign currency mortgage loans.

In 2024, net profit in this market rose 18.8% to 800 million euros, representing 5.8% of the whole group's profit.

(1 euro = $1.0910)

(Reporting by Pretish M J in Bengaluru and Jesús Aguado in Madrid; Editing by Leroy Leo and Paul Simao)