Dominican Banks Merge

Centro Financiero BHD and el Grupo Financiero Leon have agreed to merge, the two Dominican financial institutions say, bringing all operations under an entity to be known as Centro Financiero BHD Leon. At the operating level, the deal creates Banco BHD Leon, to be the country’s second largest bank with DOP182bn ($4.29bn) in assets. The two privately-held entities were mum on the valuation assigned to each side, and do not indicate what size of a minority stake in the combined entity Leon shareholders will have. The pair also notes that they are in the process of buying out the stake held by Spain’s Sabadell, but do not discuss the price involved. Sabadell held 20% of BHD prior to the Leon transaction, according to BHD’s website. The parties did not respond Thursday to request for additional details. BHD president Luis Molina is to become president of BHD Leon group’s board, with Leon president Carlos Guillermo Leon as vice president. Molina will also be president of Banco BHD Leon, with current Banco BHD CEO Steven Puig as CEO. The transaction awaits various approvals. Lazard advised BHD, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch ran a sale process on behalf of Leon. The sale follows the Leon family’s $1.24bn sale of 51% of its CND brewery to AB InBev last year.