Mexican financier Fernando Chico Pardo has agreed to acquire Citi’s 25% equity stake in Grupo Financiero Banamex for around $2.3 billion. The purchase is to be made through “a company wholly-owned by Chico Pardo and members of his immediate family”, according to Citi, and will see the entrepreneur purchase around 520 million shares of Banamex’s outstanding common shares at a fixed price-to-book ratio of 0.80 times the local book value at closing.
Banamex, founded in 1884, stands as Mexico’s fourth-largest financial group by total assets, and with a network of 1,300 branches and 9,000 ATMs, serves more than 13.6 million retail clients with commercial banking, investment services, insurance, and investment management offerings.
Citi originally acquired Banamex in 2001 for $12.5 billion. While the financial group has been considering a public offering, Citi notes that decisions regarding the timing and structure of any potential Banamex IPO will “continue to be guided by several factors, including market conditions and receipt of regulatory approvals”. In preparation for this move, Citi separated Banamex from its Mexican institutional banking business, Grupo Financiero Citi México, last December.
Expected to be completed in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals, Citi describes the deal with Chico Pardo as a “significant step” towards its divestiture of Banamex, which the banking giant confirms “remains a strategic priority”.
This transaction also advances the bank’s broader objective of “divesting its international consumer businesses and simplifying the firm to focus on its five interconnected businesses”. This strategy has previously led the group to announce plans to exit retail banking across 14 markets in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, with Citi recently finalising an agreement to sell its Poland consumer business to VeloBank.
Despite this partial divestiture, Citi emphasises that it will “retain and continue to grow” its institutional business in Mexico, stating: “Given the country’s world-class manufacturing industry and integration with global supply chains, Citi is confident about Mexico’s trajectory and is uniquely positioned to support cross-border capital markets activity and trade flows to and from Mexico.”
Following the transaction’s completion, Chico Pardo will assume the position of chair of Grupo Financiero Banamex, while Ignacio Deschamps will continue as chair of Banco Nacional de México. Manuel Romo, who has led Banamex since 2019, will remain as CEO.
Source: https://www.fintechfutures.com/
