The European Commission (EC) on Friday cleared the creation of a joint venture between Santander Consumer Leasing BV (SCL), based in the Netherlands, and Ethias NV/SA (Ethias), based in Belgium, concluding that the deal would avoid competition not increased concerns.
The joint venture Ethias Lease will focus on developing and providing operational leasing services for green electric vehicles and e-mobility solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises and the public sector in Belgium.
Santander Consumer Leasing, specialist in car leasing
SCL operates in the automotive leasing sector and is part of Grupo Santander, a financial services group based in Spain. While Ethias is an insurer offering a wide range of life and non-life insurance products and operates primarily in Belgium, and although both are leaders in their sectors, the Brussels review concluded that this merger should not be considered given its “very limited” impact would not raise competition concerns market structure.
_a826d51c-6cd3-465f-932e-89344e3e777b.jpg "Santander Consumer and Ethias have already received the green light for their joint venture from Brussels")
The transaction was completed in accordance with the European Union’s Merger Regulation and has been reviewed under the simplified merger control procedure.
Strength of the Santander group in the first semester
Santander achieved an attributable profit of 5,241 million euros in the first half of 2023, 7% more in constant and current euros than in the same period last year, thanks to the fact that the strong growth in sales, especially in Europe, neutralized the year -increase in provisions in North and South America compared to the previous year. In the second quarter, attributable net income increased by 17% to 2,670 million euros compared to the same quarter last year. The number of corporate customers has grown by nine million to 164 million in the last twelve months.