Ita� Unibanco Holding SA, the largest Latin American bank by market value, and Chilean lender CorpBanca SA could announce a banking partnership as early as Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters. S�o Paulo-based Ita� and Corpbanca, controlled by billionaire Alvaro Saieh, will create a new company in which they will merge their assets in Chile and Colombia, said two of the sources, who declined to be identified because the deal has not been finalized. A third source said Ricardo Marino, Ita�'s head of Latin American business, is in Santiago to ratify the deal.Under the terms of the deal, Ita� Unibanco would control 50.5 percent of the new company, according to one source. None of the sources gave details such as the value of the transaction.Ita� and Santiago-based CorpBanca, Chile's fifth-largest bank and which also operates in Colombia, recently confirmed they were in acquisitions talks. Both banks declined to comment.
CorpBanca is a Chile-based bank engaged in the provision of commercial and retail banking services. Shares of BCA traded higher by 0.31% or $0.06/share to $19.43. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $13.37 and as high as $22.80. On average, 88923 shares of BCA exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 37069.
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