Annual report 2009 - Santander

21Annual General Meeting, June 19th 2009, Santander, SpainCapital increaseBanco Santander carried out three capital increases in 2009:on January 30 to acquire Sovereign Bancorp, on October 13 tomeet the conversion of 754 bonds and on November 2 for theSantander Dividendo Elección programme. Overall, 234,766,732new shares were issued.Shareholder baseDuring 2009 the number of shareholders increased to3,062,633.At the end of the year, 3.4% of the capital stock was inthe hands of the board of directors, 32.6% with individualshareholders and rest with institutional investors.The interests held by Chase Nominees Limited (12.51%),State Street Bank & Trust (9.06%), EC Nominees Limited(6.91%), Bank of New York Mellon (5.57%), Societé Générale(3.59%) and Caceis Bank (3.42%), which were the only ones inexcess of 3%, were held by them for the account of their clients.The Bank is not aware of any of them holding individual stakesof 3% or more of its capital stock.Such a large and committed shareholder base represents aconsiderable responsibility, which Banco Santander assumesthrough its dividend policy, the focus it places on tending toshareholders via various information channels and exclusiveproducts and services the Bank makes available to itsshareholders in very attractive conditions.Of the total capital stock, 84.6% is located in Europe,15.1% in the Americas and 0.3% in the rest of the world.Comparative performance of the Santander share and indicesDecember 31 2008 = 100SantanderDow Jones Stoxx BanksIBEX 35200180160140120100806040dec. 08mar. 09may. 09jul. 09sep. 09nov. 09Source: Thomson Datastream, January 2010.Annual Report 2009