BCH Banco de Chile

The Central Bank of Chile sold its options to participate in Banco de Chile's (BCH, CHILE.SN) $500 million capital increase Tuesday, thereby reducing its stake in the country's second largest financial institution by loans.

During a 1980s economic crisis, the monetary authority bailed out Banco de Chile and acquired a minority stake in the bank.

The central bank had a 34.62% stake in Banco de Chile's shares at the end of 2010 and will near a 32.9% stake when the capital increase is complete, a Banco de Chile spokesman said.

The central bank sold 392.78 million share options at 3.1 pesos (0.7 cents) each on the Santiago Stock Exchange, fetching $2.6 million Tuesday.

Each share option allows the holder to participate in Banco de Chile's capital increase at CLP62.00 pesos per share.

Banco de Chile will use the proceeds from the capital increase to gain 100,000 new retail clients and 20,000 new corporate clients at a time when robust domestic demand continues to fuel strong economic growth. Chile's gross domestic demand is forecast to grow between 6% and 7% on the year in 2011, according to the central bank's latest projections.

Chilean holding company LQ Inversiones Financieras SA, owned in equal parts by the local Luksic family and Citigroup Inc. (C), controls Banco de Chile with a 61.7% stake.

Banco de Chile's shares ended 0.2% lower at CLP66.80 on Tuesday, while the blue-chip Ipsa index gained 1.4%.

Over the last 52 weeks the bank's shares have traded at a low of 53.87 pesos and a high of CLP72.64, while gaining 19.7% over the same period.

-By Anthony Esposito, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-715-8929; anthony.esposito@dowjones.com

Grafico Azioni Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH)
Storico
Da Giu 2024 a Lug 2024

Grafico Azioni Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH)
Storico
Da Lug 2023 a Lug 2024