IN MARCH 2020, Jane Fraser, CEO of Citi, took over the reins of the US financial group, one of the largest in that country and in the world.
Although Fraser tried to impose his agenda from the beginning, which included his project to transform the bank, there is one program that he inherited from his predecessor, Michael Corbat: the strategy to simplify the operations of the financial group worldwide and focus on institutional clients. .
Since 2014, Corbat has led the sale of Citi’s business operations in Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru.
In Asia, it recently sold its holdings in South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines and in the coming weeks will complete the divestment in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to Overseas Bank for 3.6 billion dollars.
Regarding Latin America, the most important sales have been those of Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, all related to consumer banking, which were announced in February 2016.
In all of them the announcement was made at least almost a year before and without having a defined buyer. However, and as happened with the announcement in Mexico, Citi remains in those countries serving corporate and institutional clients.
As a result of those three operations, rumors spread of the possible sale of Banamex five years ago by Citi, which did not happen at that time.
On the contrary, Citi announced an investment of 25 billion pesos until 2020 to improve its operations and the experience of Mexican clients.
For those wondering how long the sale of the bank led by Manuel Romo will take, the cases of Brazil, Argentina and Colombia can help establish a parameter on what comes here.
In Brazil, the sale was completed in eight months, on October 8, 2016. The buyer was Itaú, chaired by Milton Maluhy, who paid 2.8 billion dollars and included 71 branches, credit card customers, personal loans, deposit accounts and the retail brokerage business of Citi Brazil.
The purchase operation in Argentina was announced a day later, on October 9, and the buyer was Banco Santander, that of Ana Botín, which acquired half a million clients and 70 branches.
The transaction for 1.4 billion dollars led it to increase its presence in 22 provinces and the city of Buenos Aires, with 480 branches, more than 3.5 million clients, 260 thousand SMEs and 1,300 corporate companies.
In the case of the business in Colombia, the sale process lasted almost two years, until January 31, 2018, and the buyer was Scotiabank, chaired by Brian J. Porter, through its Colombian subsidiary Banco Colpatria in an agreement with an undisclosed amount.
Operations in Colombia, with more than 102 years of local presence, included 47 branches and 424 self-service access points throughout the country.
Fraser has already announced that the start of the Citibanamex sale process will start next March, so the operation here could take place as of the last quarter of 2022.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE Credito Real’s Board of Directors, Ángel Romanos, took back control of the company and is leading the restructuring of the debt in an orderly and consensual manner. With the support of the general management led by Carlos Ochoa, the first steps were the hiring of FTI Consulting as financial advisor and DLP Piper as legal advisor. Last week there were meetings with more than one hundred executives from national and international institutions to outline options that will allow a restructuring mechanism according to the times and commitments of the company. Negotiations have made positive progress in recent days. Separately, talks are also held with each creditor bank to have better communication and clarity regarding the restructuring process. I mentioned to you a few days ago that Invex, Scotiabank, Banorte, BBVA, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo, Barclays, Bladex and Nafinsa are lenders. On the bond side, consider Black Rock, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Manulife, Fidera, Doubline, UBS and Muzinich & Co. Crédito Real is financially solvent due to the diversification of its portfolio of products and portfolio, where the most valuable asset is payroll market, which has double-digit annual growth margins with active operations throughout the country. Creditors and banks were informed that Sofom maintains asset origination and collection process operations active to preserve the value of the business, a situation that should translate into trust within the sector.
It is expected that in the coming weeks a concrete plan will be presented that will allow a healthy restructuring with creditors and banks of a debt valued at 54 thousand 832 million pesos, in order to maintain the continuity of operations and the solvency of the firm.
CFE BASIC SUPPLY, lhe subsidiary of the electric company directed by Manuel Bartlett, concluded the adaptations to its infrastructure to start supplying the electricity service to the little more than 400 clients that were supplied with the fluid by Iberdrola, at its facilities in Dulces Nombres, in Pesquería Nuevo Lion. Even the company led by José Martín Mendoza already has the contracts ready to sign with the private clients that the Hispanic multinational led by José Ignacio Sánchez Galán had until the last day of January. Some of them are Cemex, Kimberly-Clark, Minera Autlán, Nylon de México, Akra Poliéster, Sigma Alimentos, Tec de Monterrey, Vitrocrisa, Ternium, Walmart, Bimbo, Soriana, Cementos Apasco, BioPappel and Nissan. That is what is lived in the Sultana del Norte, but in other parts of the country Iberdrola will also begin to lose clients whom it also made partners under an unclear scheme. One of them we called him is José Chapur. His Palace Group has eleven hotels, predominantly in Cancun and the Riviera Maya. There are more than 5,500 rooms in the area that until now are supplied via self-supply contracts for electricity generated by Iberdrola. The businessman signed for three years and that’s what follows from being angry about the service. Like him, more will come.
DON’T LOSE OF View to Kiewit. It is one of the largest construction companies in North America. The US firm chaired by Rick Lanoha was awarded the contract to develop the engineering, procurement and construction of the new combined cycle plant in Tuxpan, a project of approximately 700 million dollars where the technology partner of the consortium is the German company Siemens, which Roland Busch presides. Well now the novelty is that Kiewit could enter the project of engineering, acquisition, construction, testing and start-up of the Ixachi field separation battery, which was barely revoked from ESEASA, led by Abraham Santos, and CAABSA, led by Luis and Mauricio Amodio. The contract had been for 793 million dollars. Now it is known that Pemex Exploration and Production, directed by Ángel Cid Mungía, is pushing Kiewit hard.
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