Citigroup’s Mexican unit Banamex could attract offers of between $7 billion and $8 billion as the number of bidders dwindles, according to people familiar with the matter.
Grupo Financiero Banorte, Grupo Financiero Inbursa, owned by Carlos Slim; mining tycoon Germán Larrea, and Grupo Financiero Mifel, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
Slim, with a net worth of $73.5 billion, and Larrea, who along with his family have about $24.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, are the two richest people in Latin America.
Representatives from Citigroup, Banorte and Inbursa declined to comment. Representatives for Mifel and Grupo México de Larrea did not respond to requests for comment. The sale process is continuing and offers for the unit could change, the people said.
Earlier this year, New York-based Citigroup put its Banamex retail unit up for sale after its share of Mexican deposits fell nearly 10% in the two decades after it bought Banco Nacional de México in 2001. Banorte , which is the second largest bank in Mexico by total loans, second only to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, is seen as the main contender for Banamex.
Banco Santander said on July 22 that it was out of the bidding process after Citigroup rejected a $6 billion bid from the Spanish bank, the people said. A Santander representative declined to comment further.
The sale process has been slow, according to people close to the talks. Meanwhile, Citigroup has considered a deal to buy Deutsche Bank AG’s Mexican unit to more quickly obtain a license for operations there focused on institutional clients and private banking.
Frank Aguado, Inbursa’s head of investor relations, said last week that the company would be interested in . In a call, he told analysts that Inbursa is inviting other Mexican businessmen to join its offer, but that there is no defined group yet.
Larrea, who controls copper miner Grupo México, has hired Grupo Aeroméxico SAB president Javier Arrigunaga as well as Pedro Aspe to advise him, the people said. Aspe was serving as Mexico’s finance secretary when Banamex and other lenders were reprivatized in 1991, after being nationalized during a financial crisis a decade earlier.
Arrigunaga had been at the helm of Citibanamex from 2010 until he resigned in 2014 amid allegations of a total of $400 million in fraudulent loans to oil service provider Oceanografía SA.
The two have joined as advisers along with Barclays Plc, Bloomberg previously reported.
