BRUSSELS: Failed Franco-Belgian bank Dexia yesterday announced the sale of its Luxembourg unit for ¤730m ($950m) to a Qatari group after an associated capital increase of ¤204m.
Dexia struck a deal in April to sell 90 percent of Banque Internationale a Luxembourg (BIL) to Qatari investment group Precision Capital and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Precision Capital will hold 90 percent and Luxembourg 10 percent.
The sale “is a significant milestone in the implementation of the plan for the orderly resolution of the Dexia group,” said CEO Karel De Boeck.
Dexia said the final deal left it with a loss of ¤199m that had been almost entirely booked in its first-half 2012 accounts.
Only minor adjustments, a gain of ¤4m, will be booked in the third quarter accounts.
After the sale of its Turkish unit Denizbank last month, “a significant milestone has been passed on the path to implementing the plan for the orderly resolution of the Dexia group,” it said in a statement.
DenizBank was sold to Russia’s Sberbank for some ¤3bn , resulting in Dexia suffering a loss of ¤744m, which it will book in the third quarter of this year.
Dexia said last month that the proceeds of that deal would be used to reduce debts to Belfius, its former retail operations in Belgium that were rescued by the state at the end of 2011.
First bailed out in 2008 amid the global financial slump, Dexia was not able to survive the subsequent turmoil of the eurozone debt crisis and in October last year the three eurozone countries stepped in to wind up the bank.
AFP
