Barrons understand Santander’s offer for what it is

Barron’s comments on Santander’s sub-Optimal offer are spot on – unfortunately you may need to be a subscriber to read them in full. The good news is that their conclusion matches precisely what you have been reading on this blog over the past weeks, for free. There is some suspicion that the authors may have [...]

Santander ratcheting up the confusion factor

After the initial and ridiculous offer to investors in its Optimal Madoff vehicle, of preference shares worth 20% of their supposed value, Santander seems to be trying to improve on the offer according to the WSJ. Apparently the bank will lend selected clients up to 85% of the value of their preference shares at 3%. [...]

Santander to make a profit on its “compensation”?

As discussed in previous posts, Santander’s offer to clients was actually worth around 20% of the value Santander claims it to be. This, in itself is an insult to clients – if you only want to pay out 20%, at least you should be honest about it. Santander has refused to allow clients to keep [...]

Markopolos testimony and Santander results

Banco Santander has today reported its results for 2008. Profits were E8.9bn after a E450m charge for both Lehman and Madoff “compensation”. Santander had said it would take the entire Madoff charge in 2008, so that already shows how lowly it values its E1.38bn offer. The results coincide with Harry Markopolos’ testimony to the US [...]

Kuwaitis show Santander the way

A Kuwaiti bank has offered to reimburse clients not only the amount they had invested into its Madoff feeder fund, but also the latest pre-collapse returns. This means they are no worse off than they thought they were in November 2008. The contrast is sharp with Santander’s pretend offer to reimburse retail investors the principal [...]