Banco do Brasil May Pay $750 Million for Bankia's Florida Unit -Source
04/03/2013| 09:53am US/Eastern
By Rogerio Jelmayer
SAO PAULO--Latin America's largest bank in terms of assets, Banco do Brasil SA BBAS3.BR, BDORY), is in advanced talks to buy City National Bank of Florida, a unit of Spain's Bankia SA (>> Bankia SA), and to increase its stake in local bank Banco Votorantim SA, according to a banker involved in the talks.
"Banco do Brasil is in advanced talks to acquire City National, and it may cost at least $750 million," the banker said.
At the end of February, Bankia Chairman Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri said the bank had more than a dozen potential bidders looking at its Miami-based bank and aimed to close a sale in the second or third quarter this year. City National was put up for sale last year, when Bankia was nationalized after being caught up in the European sovereign-debt crisis.