Abbey National plc is the UK's sixth biggest bank, and Europe's second largest mortgage lender, after Halifax.
Abbey's registered office is in London and its effective Head Office is in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Its savings and banking administration departments are both in Bradford, with its mortgage centre being based in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside. Abbey recently announced that it was moving some of its Banking Customer Contact Centres, including Derby, Warrington and India, leaving only Gateshead and Glasgow with this function within Britain.
Abbey National shares peaked at more than £14 in 2000, before the stock market began a long decline.
As a result of its conversion to a bank, Abbey National plc had an unusually large number of small shareholders; approximately 1.8 million in total.
Abbey National changed its trademark to Abbey in 2003, (although it remained registered as Abbey National plc); a change prompted by Luqman Arnold (then Chief Executive) after several years of loss_making.
The takeover
In 2004, Santander Central Hispano, Spain's largest bank, acquired Abbey for £9.5 billion (or £6.50 per share). Shareholders approved the takeover of Abbey in October2004 at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).
Abbey National plc was delisted and removed from the FTSEshare index on 12 November2004 at close of trading, having successfully completed the takeover by the Spanish bank. It had been listed for more than 15 years on the London Stock Exchange (previously listed as LSE:ANL). Abbey National shareholders swapped one share in Abbey National for one of the Spanish bank's shares, and got paid a special cash dividend of 31 pence per share on 14 December 2004.
As of November 2004 the Chief Executive is Francisco Gomez-Roldan, with Luqman Arnold leaving with a rumoured £5 million, made up of pay off and share options.
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