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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Itaú has no plans for acquisition abroad, executive says, (NYSE: BCA)

Ita� Unibanco Holding SA, Latin America's largest bank by market value, has no immediate plans to purchase a rival overseas as an ongoing decline in Brazil's currency is making foreign acquisitions more expensive, a senior executive said on Tuesday.Ita�, which has wholesale banking operations in the region's main countries and is building a retail banking presence in Chile and Colombia through a tie-up with CorpBanca SA, wants to grow in Mexico. High valuations hurt Ita�'s purchase attempts in Mexico in recent years.The tumble in Brazil's currency, the real, and other emerging market currencies in recent weeks makes foreign acquisitions more expensive for companies like Ita�, which earn most of their revenue in local currency, said Alfredo Egydio Setubal, Ita�'s senior vice president for investor relations."With the dollar gaining ground and staying at a high level, it is hard to think of potential overseas transactions at this point," Setubal said at an event with the bank's shareholders in S�o Paulo.

CorpBanca is a Chile-based bank engaged in the provision of commercial and retail banking services. Shares of BCA traded higher by 1.96% or $0.34/share to $17.70. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $15.76 and as high as $22.30. On average, 57506 shares of BCA exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 40043.



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