Credit Agricole buys remainder of Caceis custody and asset JV from Santander

MADRID (Reuters) - Credit Agricole agreed to buy a 30.5% stake from Spain's Santander in custody and asset servicing entity Caceis, the banks said on Thursday, in a deal that will give the French lender full control of the business.

The banks, which issued separate statements, did not disclose the value of the deal, which remains subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to complete in 2025.

In April of 2019, the lenders agreed to combine their custody and asset servicing operations as part of a joint venture aimed at achieving scale without a full merger.

Santander said that the sale would not have a relevant impact on its earnings or earnings per share, but said the transaction would boost its capital ratio by around 10 basis points.

At the end of September, Santander reported a fully-loaded core tier-1 capital ratio, the strictest measure of solvency, of 12.5%.

Credit Agricole said the deal was consistent with its targets for return on investment and return on tangible equity and would have a negative impact of about 30 basis points on its fully-loaded core tier-1 capital ratio.

The joint business of Santander and Caceis in the depositary, custody and related asset servicing business in Latin America was out of the scope of the transaction and would remain jointly controlled by Santander and Caceis, the lenders said.

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; Editing by Jamie Freed)