Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Financials myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
Citigroup has agreed to sell a 25 per cent stake in Mexico’s Banamex to financier Fernando Chico Pardo, bringing the Wall Street bank one step closer to a full divestiture of the retail bank.
Chico Pardo would buy the stake for an estimated $2.3bn, Citi said. He is the former chief executive of Carlos Slim’s Grupo Financiero Inbursa and the founder and chief executive of Mexican private equity firm Promecap. He is also a major shareholder in airports group Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR), which holds the concession for Cancún airport.
Citi on Wednesday said it would sell about 520mn Banamex shares to a company owned by Chico Pardo and members of his immediate family. Chico Pardo will also become Banamex chair once the deal closes.
Citi is in the midst of a far-reaching restructuring, which is expected to result in 20,000 job cuts by 2026. The global bank is seeking to simplify its structure and focus on the most profitable areas of its business.
In a prepared statement, Citi chief executive Jane Fraser said the investment was “a reflection of the long-term strategic relationship we are building with Fernando as we work towards a planned public listing and realize the full value of this iconic institution for our shareholders”.
Citi has been exiting retail banking outside its core US market as part of Fraser’s bid to simplify the bank around its core businesses. Earlier this year, it agreed the sale of its Polish business to VeloBank.
However, the Banamex divestment has stalled after the original planned sale of the Mexico unit was scrapped in 2023 when then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador imposed conditions on the process. He also suggested the government might be interested in buying it and had a public dispute with one of the frontrunners.
Fraser visited Mexico to meet President Claudia Sheinbaum in August, according to people familiar with the matter.
Banamex is the fourth-largest financial group in Mexico by assets and caters to retail consumers as wells as small and mid-market businesses. The bank has about 14mn retail clients.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2026. Citi said the full divestiture of Banamex remained a “strategic priority” and that a long-awaited public listing for the bank would be “guided by several factors, including market conditions and receipt of regulatory approvals”.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said the announcement “further demonstrates [Citi’s] commitment to shrinking to profitability which should create shareholder value”.
#Citigroup #sell #stake #Mexicos #Banamex #2.3bn
