After Citigroup Inc on Tuesday announced plans to sell its Mexican consumer banking business, analysts said homegrown billionaires such as Carlos Slim and Ricardo Salinas Pliego were among front-runners to buy the Citibanamex assets.
"We would expect to at least kick the tires on ," said Barclays Canadian financials analyst John Aiken. "We do not know if Mexico is necessarily where it would like to deploy all of its excess capital."
Financial sector sources said Mexico's left-leaning government was likely to want a buyer that did not increase the market power of the top banks in the country, such as Spain's BBVAIt also appeared probable that a Mexican successor to Citi would be preferred, opening up the possibility that a consortium of buyers could club together for the assets, they said.
Some analysts said the door could still be open to some of BBVA's nearest rivals, including Santander MexicoA banking source with knowledge of the matter said Santander was among potential bidders for Citibanamex. Santander declined to comment.Brazil's Itau, which bought Citi's consumer operations in that country in 2016, could also be a bidder, said Eduardo Rosman of BTG Pactual Equities.Brazil-based online lender Nubank could also be interested, Rosman added.
"For an international bank just looking to enter the market, they'd gain 10% of the market share just through the purchase. That's a great start. For a bank that's already established in Mexico, that may be hard to justify to regulators," said Carlos Alberto Gonzalez, director of analysis and stock market strategy at Monex.
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