UAE’s Aabar acquires Banco Santander stake in Brazil

In yet another sign that the oil-rich United Arab Emirate is overcoming the economic slowdown, Aabar Investments, the government controlled Abu Dhabi-based investment fund announced yesterday that it has bought $328-million worth stake in  Banco Santander Brazil, the third largest private sector bank in Brazil.

Banco Santander is generally considered to be a very good bank with more than 2,000 branches in the country. They have had limited fallout from the subprime crisis, although they had some impact in the Spanish mortgage market.

Aabar is a listed investment company controlled by Abu Dhabi's state-owned investor International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

The investment firm made headlines this year when it bought a 9.1 per cent stake in  Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler (See: Abu Dhabi becomes largest Daimler stockholder with $2.7-billion investment), and almost 30 per cent of commercial space travel company Virgin Galactic by Sir Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur (See: UAE's Aabar to buy a 32-per cent stake in Virigin Galactic for $280 million).

"We are delighted to have had the opportunity to invest in such a strong and successful entity," Aabar's chairman, Khadem al-Qubaisi, said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

"We hope to continue to strengthen and develop the existing relationship we have with Banco Santander and look forward to working with them in the future," he said.