Banco Santander, Spain’s largest bank, announced this morning that it has entered into an agreement to buy Carfinco Financial Group Inc., a Canadian lender, for $298 million in cash.
The price represents a 32.1% premium to Carfinco’s weighted average share price for the 90 days ending Sept. 15.
Under the deal to acquire the Edmonton, Alberta-based company, each Carfinco shareholder will receive a cash consideration of CDN$11.25 ($10.21) for each common share of Carfinco.
In September 2013, Carfinco bought Persian Acceptance Corp., in its first move into the U.S. Persian Acceptance is a Wakefield, Mass.-based subprime lender that does business in five New England states.
Carfinco went public in November 2013 with the aim to buy U.S. subprime lender Western Funding Inc., which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection two months prior. Ultimately, Westlake Financial Services acquired Western Funding.
The Santander acquisition is slated to close in the fourth quarter.
