Chile Forum

There was also a downgrade on Chilean banks because of the low interest rates they are now charging are suppose to squeeze their profits relative to the run up in their stock price over the last few years. I don't think they appreciate how Chile's banking system makes money off of fees on everything, especially small consumer loans and credit cards.

James,
What is your source for your comment about the potential buy-out of Banco de Chile by CitiCorp? As a temporary resident (with a Banco de Chile account) I am not particularly enthralled with the possibility of having to deal with a CitiCorp subsidiary.
Thanks,
John

john wrote:What is your source for your comment about the potential buy-out of Banco de Chile by CitiCorp?

It's been all over the Chilean and financial press, look it up on emol.com or bloomberg.com.

Note that Citigroup simply bought more of the holding company. It's nearly impossible to know exactly how much (without serious research)because companies own each other and holding companies.

SANTIAGO (Dow Jones)--U.S. bank Citigroup (C) increased its stake in the controlling shareholder of Banco de Chile (BCH, CHILE.SN) to 41.48%, according to a Friday filing with the Chilean securities overseer.

From Reuters:

Chilean holding company Quinenco QNN.SN, which is the main shareholder in LQ Inversiones, announced the deal in a statement to the bourse regulator.

Citigroup has increased its stake in LQ Inversiones by 8.52 percent to around 41.5 percent. LQ Inversiones is the controlling shareholder of Banco de Chile CHI.SN.

Shares in Banco de Chile rose 2.76 percent on Friday to 48.80 pesos.

Quinenco, which is controlled by the Luksic family group, is invested in financial, food and beverage, manufacturing and telecommunications companies, including brewer CCU CCU.SN.

Old "family groups" control a lot here. The names start getting familiar

otravers,
Thank you for your post. Have not been paying attention to what's been going on financially in Chile recently.

Lara,
Many thanks for posting related articles.

My apologies Laura for spelling your name wrong!

john wrote:My apologies Laura for spelling your name wrong!

Not a problem-if my worst problem is getting my name slightly wrong, I have no problems.

whoaaaa...

this is alot to digest in a simple forum...not say'n its not right but have not heard anything and I should have....no one keeps a secret in Chile and it hadn't leaked out yet so stand and deliver.

p

SP: not to mention that last friday was a long time ago...its true banco snatender and banco de chile have been acting different on the market as of late but we could easily see that us markets have influenced that...

el puelche wrote:whoaaaa...

this is alot to digest in a simple forum...not say'n its not right but have not heard anything and I should have....no one keeps a secret in Chile and it hadn't leaked out yet so stand and deliver.

p

SP: not to mention that last friday was a long time ago...its true banco snatender and banco de chile have been acting different on the market as of late but we could easily see that us markets have influenced that...

No one keeps a secret? I don't understand exactly what you are saying. I think there is little interest in business dealings by many in Chile but US business news will report quite a lot. It's hard to know how much exactly but there are some clues. But it is too much work, you see, with all the holding companies that own each other. Especially in Chile, no one buys out right(except a small percentage) but through the holding companies.

I once spent quite a long time trying to see what D & S Holding SA(that Walmart owns some 58% now) really holds-and in 20 articles you can only gather bits and pieces but it is quite impossible without paying for "premium content" to see the whole picture. My Chilean friends continue to insist that Walmart does not have a controlling interest. And the Ibanez family still runs it(although back at Walmart headquarters, they did look cute in their new walmart vests and speak perfect English with no trace of an accent) and the name hasn't been changed so I guess that is a secret.

El p, you seem a bit grumpy-

P must be in the States. El P always gets a bit grumpy when he is stuck in the States, and he would rather be chasing chicha in the Moon Light.

otravers wrote:

john wrote:What is your source for your comment about the potential buy-out of Banco de Chile by CitiCorp?

It's been all over the Chilean and financial press, look it up on emol.com or bloomberg.com.

Yeah, I got it from EMOL as usual.

I don't know why I didn't notice this before-looks like Citigroup will have a controlling interest-50% soon but not difficult to pick up a few shares from shareholders here and there to get to 51%


It's an ongoing process.

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Banco de Chile rose the most in more than a week, extending gains after Citigroup Inc. agreed to buy an additional stake in its holding company.

Banco de Chile, controlled by Chile’s Luksic family, climbed 2.6 percent to 48.70 pesos. The Luksic’s investment vehicle Quinenco SA surged the most in more than two years.

Citigroup exercised an option to buy 8.5 percent of LQ Inversiones Financieras SA, or LQIF, the company through which Quinenco controls Banco de Chile, according to a Quinenco statement posted today on the Chilean regulator’s Web site.

"In 2007, the New York-based bank acquired 32.96 percent of LQIF and an option to increase that to 50 percent under an agreement with Quinenco to combine their Chilean operations"

Sort of interesting that some of these large family owned are giving up control-I really don't see why. I guess it's simply the money, you just can't be rich enough. The Ibanez family gave up control of D & S(to walmart) not long ago as well. It was just 50% but walmart picked up shares to make it 58% I think,

Laura,

Could greed be the opium of the super rich? In the immortal words ( ) of Karl Marx: "... capitalists will sell you the rope to hang them with ..."

John

I think chile has got the right person billionaire as president. He must be having lot of ideas for investments. Jobs creation and international relations.
1. First thing he should concentrate of language. Like all other European countries apart from own language they also have English as second largest official language.
2. I see English is very much essential in chile.
3. I have an idea please correct me if I am wrong.
a. With the idea it’s possible to educate even older people to read and learn in the everyday activities.
b. The idea is, suppose imagine in the very next week, all public offices like.
1. Govt. offices.
2. Banks
3. Public boards
4. TV channels in translation
5. Web sites both the language
6. Scientific discussions. Etc… All these applications printed both in Spanish as official language and English as second language in the same application. Then people can read understand and slowly can speak also…
4. I think this can make revolution in a span of short period. This will not require much investment also except printing cost.
5. Even this makes any foreigner to understand Spanish and learn soon also. But my experience in chile is language is big problem. And very much essential.
6. As I know many people can able to read in English but no speaking. This idea can help anybody…
What do you say…
Please reply…

john wrote:Laura,

Could greed be the opium of the super rich? In the immortal words ( ) of Karl Marx: "... capitalists will sell you the rope to hang them with ..."

John

Yes, the greed is too transparent I think. So-called capitalists don't seem to see long term health/profits anymore-they just want all they can get right now.

On the English, I think it is important to learn English as a second language and many Chileans are averse to it. Economically, English connects people to the world (access to better websites, competition in goods and services) and English is the language of business (I knew one English student who was taking English classes paid for by her boss so she could talk to...Japanese business people!). Pinera knows this, Bachelet has made many moves toward encouraging English learning-it will be interesting to see if Pinera continues this, especially in light of LAN(as EEUU said) dropping their English site. You would think with the state of tourism, the #1 airline in Chile would really have a full English usability factor.