HSBC to acquire Panama’s Grupo Banistmo

European banking giant HSBC has confirmed that they are going to acquire Panama’s Grupo Banistmo in a friendly takeover deal worth around 958 million pounds.

This deal would further boost their presence in the Latin American market. The deal would be conducted in a cash-only transaction and HSBC would be paying Grupo Banistmo SA stockholders $52.63 per share.

This price is an impressive 25 percent premium on its closing price on Thursday.

A lot of financial institutions are now expanding their efforts in the Latin American countries, which is growing at an impressive pace. HSBC is already the world’s third-biggest bank and they also own Mexico’s fourth-largest bank and one of Brazil’s top ten.

Sandy Flockhart, the head of HSBC’s Mexico operations spoke about their plans for this region: “The area is interesting to HSBC because of its political stability. It’s a good opportunity to grow operations in the countries where we have a strong front office in Banistmo.”