Chilean bank CorpBanca said on Friday that a lawsuit brought by U.S. investment firm Cartica Management to stop a proposed merger with a Brazilian bank was "entirely without merit." Brazilian bank Itau Unibanco Holding SA is seeking to win control of CorpBanca in what would be Latin America's largest banking merger since 2008.Cartica's lawsuit, a rare instance of investor activism in the region, alleges that Itau, CorpBanca and billionaire Alvaro Saieh, CorpBanca's controlling shareholder, violated U.S. anti-fraud and disclosure rules.Cartica, which owns around 3.2 percent of CorpBanca's common shares, added Itau as a defendant in its lawsuit on Thursday."CorpBanca continues to firmly believe that Cartica's claims are entirely without merit, and that Cartica's interests are not aligned with those of other CorpBanca shareholders," said the Chilean bank in a statement.
Itau Unibanco Holding SA is a Brazil-based holding active in the banking sector. Shares of ITUB traded higher by 1.06% or $0.16/share to $15.27. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $10.35 and as high as $15.54. On average, 13091600 shares of ITUB exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 9368988.
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