MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican lender Banorte will again consider a potential purchase of Banamex, Citi’s one-time retail unit in the country which it split off last year, Banorte’s CEO told analysts on Wednesday.
“There are a lot of moving pieces,” CEO Marcos Ramirez said. “So we will watch closely what’s going on and propose.”
Banorte had previously bowed out of the competition for Banamex in 2022, though Citi was ultimately unable to find a buyer for the unit.
Citi was close to selling it to mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico for $7 billion, though tensions between the group and then-President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led to the deal falling apart.
Instead Citi is set to list Banamex, which could be a possible dual listing in Mexico City and New York.
“Our duty is to see whatever is on the market and analyze it, and then our board will decide, and then (shareholders), the owners of the company,” Ramirez said.
Banorte will have a shareholders meeting later on Wednesday. The firm will also propose a dividend of 9.99 pesos ($0.5090) per share as well as re-establishing a 32-billion-peso share buyback fund over the next 12 months.
($1 = 19.6258 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Kylie Madry and Rafael Escalera Montoto; Editing by Natalia Siniawski)
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