The huge initial public offering (IPO), which surpassed the July listing of China State Construction Engineering in Shanghai, gives the Brazilian division of the bank a market value of $50bn, similar to that of Germany's Deutsche Bank or France's Société Générale. Brazil's previous IPO record was held by VisaNet's $4.3bn equity-raising, the credit card operator's Brazilian affiliate.
The listing has attracted the interest of an Abu Dhabi state-linked investment fund, which has invested $328m in depositary shares issued by Banco Real.
Santander is one of the few banks in Europe to emerge in relative good health from the global financial crisis and it has generated capital at such a rate that it may have to return cash to shareholders next year through a special dividend, according to chief executive Alfredo Sáenz.
The Spanish bank bought Banco Real as part of the break-up of ABN Amro in 2007 after a series of acquisitions in the country. The takeover doubled the size of Santander's Brazil operations and the country now contributes a fifth of the parent bank's net profit - supporting the bank at a time when the Spanish economy has fallen in deep recession.
The IPO's proceeds will be used to further strengthen the bank's operations in Brazil and to open an additional 600 branches in the country, bringing the total number to 7200.
