By Charles Penty

June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Santander Central Hispano SA, Spain's biggest bank, may raise 4 billion euros ($5.3 billion) selling real estate assets including the bank's headquarters to fund its banking business.

The lender hopes to make a 1.4 billion-euro capital gain by selling 44 buildings in Spain, including its new headquarters at Boadilla del Monte outside Madrid, a spokeswoman for the bank said today in a telephone interview.

By selling real estate, Santander would follow a similar pattern as HSBC Holdings Plc, which sold its London headquarters to Spain's Metrovacesa SA in April for 1.09 billion pounds ($2.14 billion). The sale would help the bank boost solvency ratios stretched by its 19.9 billion-euro bid for ABN Amro Holding NV's Brazil and Italian banks, Caja Madrid analyst Javier Bernat said.

``It's something other banks have done and the amount of money they'd raise is significant,'' Bernat said in a phone interview. ``It could help them increase their capital ratios and that's important for them to protect their credit ratings.''

The Santander, Spain-based lender will lease back the properties that are to be put on sale and will have the option to buy them back in the future, the spokeswoman said.

Santander, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Fortis are competing with Barclays Plc to buy ABN Amro. The Spanish bank will go ahead with the asset sales even if the ABN Amro acquisition doesn't succeed, the spokeswoman added.

Santander said last month that it would raise as much as 10 billion euros selling new shares and other securities and finance the rest, including by asset sales and by taking on more debt.

The bank plans a capital increase to raise as much as 4.5 billion euros between July and September, Chief Executive Officer Alfredo Saenz said at the time.

The financing structure for ABN Amro means Santander's core capital ratio could drop to 5.3 percent from about 6 percent. Selling real estate assets may take the ratio back to 5.6 percent, easing pressure on the bank, Bernat said.

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