The Spanish-based bank's acquisitive fame was sealed on Monday with the purchase of a $2.4 billion stake in US bank Sovereign Bancorp, just a year after buying Abbey. The British unit contributed 492 million euros ($588 million) to profit in the nine-month period.
Santander said it expected more savings from Abbey in 2008, but it held back from raising targets as many brokers had anticipated in the run-up to the results.
Cost savings from last year's 8 billion pound purchase were on track to reach its targeted 300 million pounds ($530 million) by the end of 2007, with the bank expecting to have completed 200 million pounds of that by the end of 2005.
Analysts had forecast it could raise its savings goal to at least 400 million pounds by 2007.
Santander said it aimed to grow Abbey's revenue by 5-10 percent annually over the next three years.
Eyes were also on news of US buy Sovereign, announced on Monday and expected to add 1.8 percent to Santander's earnings per share in 2006, or 2.2 percent if Santander boosts its stake.
Santander is buying a 19.8 percent stake in Sovereign for $2.4 billion and has an option to raise that next year to 24.9 percent. The Spanish bank has stressed, however, that the investment is a financial one, akin to its purchase in the 1990s of a stake in First Fidelity Bancorp.
It also said its core capital, a measure of financial health and a focus of the market in recent years, was expected to end the year at 6 percent after the Sovereign move.
Santander reported group net profit of 3.88 billion euros ($4.6 billion), up from 3.67 billion a year ago and ahead of an average forecast of 3.84 billion euros from a Reuters poll.
Net interest income, or its earnings on basic lending and borrowing, rose to 7.76 billion euros, also pipping expectations for a rise to 7.66 billion euros.