Santander sells 3.5% stake in its Polish unit for around $473 million

MADRID, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Spain's Santander has sold around a 3.5% stake in its Polish subsidiary Santander Polska for about $473 million through an accelerated bookbuild, the lender said on Tuesday.

The transaction will leave Santander with around a 9.7% stake in its Polish unit after completing an accelerated placement of 3,576,626 ordinary shares at a price of 482 zlotys ($132.33) per share.

That represents a discount of around 5.8% to Monday's closing price of 511.6 zlotys per share.

The partial divestment follows an agreement in May to sell a 49% stake in Santander's Polish bank for around 6.8 billion euros ($7.90 billion) to Erste Group Bank.

The bank said it will remain committed to the Polish market through Santander Consumer, and that the remaining shares in its subsidiary will be subject to a 90-day post-closing lock-up period.

($1 = 3.6423 zlotys)

($1 = 0.8610 euros)

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; editing by Tommy Wilkes Reggiori, Victoria Waldersee and Jan Harvey)