Small investors in Abbey National, the sixth largest UK bank, may have been smarting last week after their unsuccessful showdown with the bank's chairman, Lord Burns. And employees may be fretting about their futures, following the approval of Santander Central Hispano's £9.1bn takeover. But in Madrid there was a feeling of euphoria.
Santander investors had the gains in its share price to smile about, but also the feeling that the UK bank was bought for a song â or at least for half of the value placed on it by former bidder, Lloyds TSB, in 2001.
