LONDON (AP) -- British mortgage lender Alliance & Leicester urged shareholders on Tuesday to accept a $2.4 billion takeover offer from Spain's Banco Santander as the best protection for their investment amid extreme financial market turbulence and the deteriorating outlook for the domestic economy.A&L said that "significant external risks" remained and that the value to shareholders "of the greater certainty provided by being part of a larger organization is considerable."
"The A&L Board sees no obvious circumstances that are likely, materially, to improve conditions in the financial markets or the broader economic outlook in the near to medium term, and has concluded that there is a risk of external events further eroding shareholder value," it added in the document posted to shareholders, who are due to vote on the plan on Sept. 16.
If the 1.3 billion pound stock deal goes ahead as planned, A&L will be merged with Banco Santander's existing British subsidiary, the Abbey, to create a much larger bank with 959 branches and 10 percent of Britain's current accounts.
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