Rumours have been reported on the business information service Zephus.com that Banco Santander Central Hispano SA is to buy Banco Santiago in a US$130m deal. According to the rumour, which first surfaced at the end of last week, the acquisition is to take the form of an increase in ownership from 43.5% to 50.5%. The vendor company is thought to be the UK-based HSBC Holdings Ltd.
All three parties have a factoring interest in Chile. According to the latest market information provided by Security Factoring* HSBC factoring had 2% market share, Santiago 10% and Santander 6% in 2001.
Both Santander and Banco Santiago are members of Corfo, the Chilean economic development agency comprised of a collaborative network of members of the financial community, which announced in November 2001 that it was offering a new credit and loans programme for micro and small enterprises.
BCR