Banco Santander Central Hispano announced Wednesday the intention to purchase 97% of the equity in Brazilian Banco Meridional Group. No purchase price was given. The deal is subject to due diligence and regulatory approvals. BSCH will be the 5th largest bank in Brazil following the acquisition. It also claims to be the largest bank in the South American continent with operations in 12 South American countries. The Meridional group has assets of US$4.9bn whilst BSCH existing Brazilian operations have assets of $7.6bn.
Banco Meridional has made a recovery to profit following a reverse take-over from the investment bank, Banco Bozano Simonsen in 1997. The Meridional retail operations are heavily focused in the south of Brazil. Branch overlap with the existing BSCH operations are said to be small. BSCH will keep the separate identity and management of Meridional which will report separately to BSCH group. The investment bank operations of Bozano Simonsen are based in Rio de Janeiro.
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