Santander Central Hispano (SCH), the Spanish bank, hired Lehman Brothers to sell €1.1bn ($1bn) worth of shares in an accelerated sale, having used Merrill Lynch for a share sale in December 2001.

Merrill had also previously advised the Spanish bank on a rights issue. In the current sale, SCH is using the funds raised to finance its acquisition of AKB Holding, a German car financing company. Lehman has crossed over after acting as adviser to Grupo Werhahn, the seller.