This was the old news....
DJ Peru's Banco Wiese Shares Drop On Merger
Delays
LIMA (Dow Jones)--Delays in the official creation of
Banco Wiese-Sudameris is severely hurting shares of
Banco Wiese Ltdo (BWP), which will merge with Banco
de Lima, controlled by Sudameris, a unit of Italy's Banca
Commerciale Italiana (I.BAN), said a top official at
Banco Wiese Tuesday.
Banco Wiese shares fell more than 10% Tuesday.
Banco Sudameris to buy a controlling stake in Banco
Wiese, Peru's second-largest bank in terms of loans, in
mid-January. The resulting company will rank second in
the country, after Banco de Credito (E.BDC), a unit of
Credicorp Ltd. (BAP).
"Shareholders must be worried about delays in the official
merger," said an official who declined to be identified.
He said the merger won't take more than 10 days. He
said that although the merger has been postponed, such a
large operation "can't be executed in five minutes."
The official said Arthur Andersen has been hired by both
banks to audit each bank's documents.
"Officials from Banco Wiese have some disagreements
with Banco de Lima reports and vice versa, but directors
of both banks said that the merger will go," said the
official.
A statement released when the deal was announced said
the stake purchased by Sudameris is worth about 53% of
Banco Wiese. Officials said later the exact percentage
was going to be released after the merger.
But rumors spreading in the market in the last days said
Banco Wiese will be able to keep just 10% of the new
bank Wiese-Sudameris.
"I can't rectify or deny this figure. I don't believe that this
(percentage) will be exact if the audit just has finished, "
said the Banco Wiese official.
If this happens, Banco Wiese's shares would lose value,
local traders said.
Claudia Pescetto, analyst at Macrovalores, said the
market capital of Banco Wiese fell to $118 million from
$243.3 million the day after the merger was announced.
Officials at Banco Sudameris weren't available for
comment.
-By Virginia Rey-Sanchez; 511-221-7050;
VReySanchez@ap.org
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 05-25-99
07:53 PM |
