BBVA Sells Peruvian Pension Unit to Sura, AFP Profuturo
04/23/2013| 02:55pm US/Eastern
(Updates with details on AFP Profuturo's purchase of stake.)
By Darcy Crowe and Ryan Dube
BOGOTA, Colombia--BBVA (>> Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.) has sold its Peruvian pension unit, with Colombia's Grupo de Inversiones Suramerica SA and AFP Profuturo taking equal stakes.
Grupo de Inversiones Suramerica SA (GRUPOSURA.BO), known as Grupo Sura, said it is buying a 50% stake in for $514 million. Sura, in a filing to the Colombian securities regulator on Tuesday, said the purchase took place in the open market in the Lima stock exchange where BBVA AFP Horizonte, the Peruvian pension fund, trades.
AFP Profuturo, whose main shareholder is a unit of Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS, BNS.T), also said Tuesday that it bought the remaining 50% stake in AFP Horizonte. AFP Profuturo said in a statement to Peru's securities regulator that it paid about $515 million for the stake on the Lima Stock Exchange.
AFP Profuturo said that within six months it plans to transfer 50% of the pension funds held by AFP Horizonte to its portfolio. It said the other 50% will be transferred to AFP Integra SA (INTEGRC1.VL), which is Grupo Sura's unit.
Grupo Sura, a financial conglomerate that is also a shareholder in Bancolombia, Colombia's largest bank, has been expanding overseas in recent year.
The Medellin-based firm in 2011 paid 2.6 billion euros to acquire the pension business of ING Groep NV (>> ING Groep N.V.) in Latin America.