PHILADELPHIA, April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sovereign Bancorp,
Inc. ("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), parent company of Sovereign Bank, announced
today that, subject to receiving all required regulatory approvals, it
expects to close its pending acquisition of Independence Community Bank
Corp. ("Independence") and the $2.4 billion placement of common equity to
Banco Santander Hispano, S.A. ("Santander") on or before June 1, 2006. In
addition, its Board of Directors has elected to postpone the record and
distribution dates of the 5% stock dividend announced on March 15, 2006 by
one month. The stock dividend will now be distributed on June 22, 2006 to
shareholders of record on June 1, 2006. The newly issued shares will be
issued in book form, with cash paid in lieu of fractional shares. The
quarterly cash dividend of $.08 per share declared on March 15, 2006 and
payable on May 15, 2006 to shareholders of record on May 1, 2006 is not
affected by this action.
Postponing the record date and closing the pending transactions on or
before the record date for the stock dividend, allows Santander to be
eligible to receive the 5% stock dividend and thus preserves the economic
agreement of the parties set forth in their definitive agreement.
Santander's $2.4 billion investment remains unchanged at $27.00 per share
for 19.8% of Sovereign's outstanding shares of common stock (after giving
effect to the purchase). The $27.00 per share price represents a 26.4%
premium to Friday's closing price.
Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., ("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), is the parent
company of Sovereign Bank, a pro forma $83 billion financial institution
with nearly 800 community banking offices, over 2,000 ATMs and
approximately 12,000 team members with principal markets in the Northeast
United States after giving effect to the Independence acquisition and
recently announced branding agreement in which Sovereign ATMs will be
placed in CVS/pharmacy locations. Sovereign offers a broad array of
financial services and products including retail banking, business and
corporate banking, cash management, capital markets, wealth management and
insurance. Sovereign is the 18th largest banking institution in the United
States. For more information on Sovereign Bank, visit
http://www.sovereignbank.com or call 1-877-SOV-BANK.
Note: "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this press release regarding Sovereign
Bancorp's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking
statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such
risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual future events to differ
from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see
"Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the most recently ended fiscal year.
SOURCE Sovereign Bancorp, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.sovereignbank.com
CONTACT:
FINANCIAL: Mark McCollom, +1-610-208-6426, or
mmccollo@sovereignbank.com, or Stacey Weikel, +1-610-208-6112, or
sweikel@sovereignbank.com; or MEDIA: Ed Shultz, +1-610-378-6159,
or eshultz1@sovereignbank.com, all of Sovereign Bancorp
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