Intesa sold its Sudameris banking franchise in Chile to Desarrollo last month in return for US$30m in newly issued Desarrollo shares. The deal is also expected to boost Desarrollo's leasing activities by 29%, which is also an SME instrument, said Desarrollo Chairman, Vicente Caruz.
Meanwhile he confirmed Desarrollo is in talks about buying a factoring agency backed by the board's approval of a US$23bn capital increase for expansions. He said previously that the deal's final price tag would likely be between US$2.5m and US$3m.
Chile's Banco del Desarrollo expects to increase foreign trade operations by 40% after buying the local Sudameris franchise from Italian group Intesa, newspaper El Mercurio quoted Vicente Caruz as saying.
Caruz underlined the importance of the bank's increased foreign trade capacity to its target market of small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are expected to become more active in foreign trade.
