Merrill Lynch has started a €900m ($809m) accelerated sale of shares in Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH), the Spanish bank, in the small window available before the markets close over Christmas.
BSCH said in a statement: "The capital increase responds to the most recent recommendations of the Bank of Spain with respect to the composition of bank capital structures and will, if executed, permit the group to redeem outstanding preferred stock issued by subsidiaries of the bank."