Feb 23 (Reuters) – Citigroup is nearing a deal to sell a 24% stake in its Mexican retail bank Grupo Financiero Banamex to a group of investors that includes Blackstone, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The move would follow a 25% stake sale in Banamex late last year to a company owned by Mexican billionaire Fernando Chico Pardo and his family.
Citi declined to comment on the report. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
The report added that the U.S. lender is discussing offloading stakes smaller than 5% each to a group of companies and Mexican family offices, including General Atlantic, the co-CEOs of Grupo Televisa SAB, Brazilian bank Banco BTG Pactual SA and Afore Sura, and the Mexican pension fund of Colombia’s Sura Asset Management.
The stake sale, if it goes through, will mark another win for Citi’s efforts to divest its Banamex ownership, after years-long struggle to find an investor or acquirer.
The potential deal also marks the latest move in Citi’s retreat from Latin America, where the bank was once a player in retail banking in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.
The stake sale in December to Mexico’s Pardo, who as part of the deal became Banamex chairman, triggered a goodwill impairment charge – usually recorded when an asset is sold below the price it is booked at – of $726 million for Citigroup in the third quarter.
Banamex, which Citi bought in a $12.5 billion deal in 2001, is the last international consumer banking divestiture in CEO Jane Fraser’s streamlining plan announced in 2021. At the time, the bank committed to divesting from 14 markets across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Mexico.
(Reporting by Ateev Bhandari in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
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