Alliance & Leicester takeover given the go-ahead

Shareholders in Alliance & Leicester today approved its takeover by Spain’s Banco Santander after being told the deal would provide “certainty and stability” amid the global credit crunch.

A&L’s acting chairman Roy Brown told shareholders attending an extraordinary general meeting in Birmingham that the £1.3bn (€1.6bn) takeover by Santander was in their best interests given the current market turmoil.

Dismissing calls from some shareholders for A&L to “ride out” the global financial storm, Mr Brown predicted that the banking sector would get worse before it gets better.

Mr Brown told the EGM that adverse market sentiment could be indiscriminate, particularly against banks, and the current “vast” financial crisis was unprecedented in the last century.

“There is a regime out there of fear, volatility, contagion – and all of that might increase,” he told around 100 A&L shareholders gathered at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre.