New York, March 24 (IANS/EFE) The chairman of Spain's Grupo Santander, Emilio Botin, is the subject of a glowing article in the latest issue of Fortune magazine, which describes the 77-year-old executive as "Europe's foxiest banker".
Botin, who heads Europe's largest bank by market capitalization, is a "bold risk-taker" known for snapping up foreign banks at bargain prices, overhauling the management and then launching them on the stock market as independent subsidiaries, Fortune says.
The strategy has served Santander well, but the bank is still facing a difficult moment, the chairman acknowledged in an interview with the magazine.
"We're in an international crisis - things haven't been this bad since the 1930s," Botin said in February, a few days after he announced that Santander's earnings fell 36 percent in 2011.
"No doubt it is a significant problem, but the last four years have also been a big opportunity for Santander," he said, predicting that the bank's profits will increase 50 percent within two years.
In his first interview with a US media outlet, Botin also addressed the question of who will succeed him as boss of Santander, though he offered no clues.
"The board has an idea of who the new people in charge might be. We don't do what other banks do and announce it two years in advance," he said.
Emilio Botin took over the Santander chairmanship from his father in 1986, while his daughter, Harvard-educated Ana Patricia Botin, now runs the group's operation in Britain.
Botin, who heads Europe's largest bank by market capitalization, is a "bold risk-taker" known for snapping up foreign banks at bargain prices, overhauling the management and then launching them on the stock market as independent subsidiaries, Fortune says.
The strategy has served Santander well, but the bank is still facing a difficult moment, the chairman acknowledged in an interview with the magazine.
"We're in an international crisis - things haven't been this bad since the 1930s," Botin said in February, a few days after he announced that Santander's earnings fell 36 percent in 2011.
"No doubt it is a significant problem, but the last four years have also been a big opportunity for Santander," he said, predicting that the bank's profits will increase 50 percent within two years.
In his first interview with a US media outlet, Botin also addressed the question of who will succeed him as boss of Santander, though he offered no clues.
"The board has an idea of who the new people in charge might be. We don't do what other banks do and announce it two years in advance," he said.
Emilio Botin took over the Santander chairmanship from his father in 1986, while his daughter, Harvard-educated Ana Patricia Botin, now runs the group's operation in Britain.
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