• by IPS Correspondents (caracas)
• Thursday, November 10, 1994
• Inter Press Service

CARACAS, Nov 10 (IPS) - Thirty percent of the shares in the Provincial bank of Venezuela are to be put up for sale shortly by the Credit Lyonnais bank of France and the Venezuelan state Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF), according to local financial media.

The DIF intends to sell its 10 percent of Provincial in order to recuperate some of the money it injected into floundering private banks this year. Profits from the 20 percent owned by Credit Lyonnais will reportedly cover losses in its head office.

A stock broker told IPS that the total transaction would be worth more than 100 million dollars, as Provincial's 105 million stocks are currently worth some 3.20 dollars on the Caracas exchange.

Provincial was already Venezuela's leading private bank in 1993, and has attracted ever-increasing business as wave after wave of financial crisis destroyed 11 other Venezuelan banks, including three of the six largest in the country.

Deposits at Provincial total nearly three billion dollars, more than twice those at the second leading bank.

The massive institution also leads in securities, with a difference between credit and debit accounts six times better than its nearest competitor. Its accumulated profits for the July-September period were 35.2 million dollars - in absolute terms, more than three times the second highest profits.

Provincial's largest individual shareholder is the Polar Group, which emerged in the 1980s as Venezuela's largest private holding.

The DIF received its 10 percent of Provincial shares from the Metropolitan bank and its affiliates, which were taken over by the state last June when they succumbed the second wave of financial crisis.

Meanwhile, Credit Lyonnais reportedly suffered 849 dollars in losses in the first half of 1994, and called for assistance from the French government, which demanded that it sell off foreign stocks in order to lighten the taxpayers' load.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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