Mexico’s Grupo Elektra has sold all of its outstanding shares in the Peruvian subsidiary of Banco Azteca to a group of 22 Peruvian financial investors in an unprecedented deal, thus exiting the Peruvian banking sector.
The acquisition of the shares was carried out by means of an over-the-counter operation with the intervention of a broker dealer company. It is worth mentioning that the fact that the target company is a publicly traded corporation and is subject to the various regulations of the banking sector introduced several complexities to both the negotiation and execution of the transaction. In this sense, despite the fact that the buyer group jointly acquired control of the bank without any of the individual investors acquiring a stake greater than or equal to 10% of the company’s outstanding stock, each investor made a “Fit & Proper” filing before the Peruvian banking authority for the purposes of evaluating their suitability to own and run a banking institution.
Finally, the transition from having the bank controlled by a single economic group to control being shared by a large number of investors from different backgrounds meant that the negotiation of a robust shareholders agreement was paramount.
Grupo Elektra has commented that, following this operation, the company will continue to focus its efforts on Mexico, the United States and Central America.
As for the buyer group, they intend to launch an aggressive turnaround plan starting early 2021, betting on the modernization of the bank’s physical and digital channels.
The share purchase agreement and other transaction documents were signed on November 26th, 2020, and the effective transfer of the shares was executed and settled on December 1st, 2020.
Counsel to group of 22 Peruvian financial investors, including Acceso Corp S.A., members of Grupo Acceso Crediticio and members of Grupo Wiese, among others:
Rebaza Alcazar & De Las Casas: Alexandra Orbezo (partner); Rafael Alcázar (partner); Camilo Maruy (partner); Fiorella Atoche (senior associate); Pedro Díaz (senior associate); María del Pilar Sánchez (senior associate); Pablo León (senior associate); Stefano Amprimo (associate).