Madrid-headquartered financial institution Banco Santander Central Hispano has completed the $636 million acquisition of Drive, a specialist automobile finance company.
Following the acquisition, Drive’s business plan and executive management team will remain largely unchanged. Thomas Dundon, president and COO of Drive will retain a 10% ownership as well as adopting the additional role of CEO.
Santander’s ownership and Drive’s credit risk expertise will help us to continue to improve our mix of business to include higher quality originations while maintaining our ability to sustain rapid growth, commented Mr Dundon. We believe we are poised to become one of the leading companies in our industry.
Santander has a market capitalization of E86.9 billion, specializing in retail banking, consumer finance, asset management and insurance.