Spain's Santander Launches Buyback Alongside Earnings Beat

By Elena Vardon

Banco Santander reported fourth-quarter results that topped analyst expectations and approved a 5 billion-euro ($5.91 billion) share-buyback program.

The Spanish lender published its earnings a day early, alongside the surprise announcement of a deal to buy Webster Financial in the U.S. for $12.3 billion. Santander is currently the largest bank in continental Europe by market capitalization, though it makes a large chunk of its profits from its operations across Latin America and the U.S. In the U.S., the bank has been building out a full-scale digital lender, strengthening its investment bank and will now boost its presence through the acquisition of a regional bank in the Northeast.

For the last quarter of 2025, the Madrid-based group posted 3.76 billion euros in net profit, marking a 15% increase on the comparable three-month period the year prior and beating the 3.41 billion-euro estimate taken from a company-compiled consensus.

Total income--its revenue figure--edged up 1% to 16.11 billion euros on robust customer activity with resilient net interest income and higher income from fees, it said late Tuesday. This surpassed the consensus estimate of 15.675 billion euros.

For 2026, Santander expects revenue to grow in the mid-single digits, and anticipates lower costs and higher profit compared with the previous year. These targets exclude the Webster acquisition, as well as its integration of TSB in the U.K. and the disposal of its Polish operations.

After the closure of the U.S. deal, the bank is guiding for revenue to grow by a double-digit percentage in 2027, with profit growth in the mid-teens. Return on tangible equity--a key profitability measure--is expected to surpass 20% in 2028, it added.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 04, 2026 02:03 ET (07:03 GMT)