After IFC deal, Chile's Consorcio gets ambitious

Chile's Consorcio Financiero plans an IPO, doubling the amount of assets under management and boosting operations in Peru after the International Finance Corporation closed a deal last week to acquire an 8.3% stake in the financial group.

As part of the agreement, Consorcio must become a public company.

"In the next five years Consorcio should be listed in the stock market," Marcos Büchi, president of Consorcio, was quoted as saying by local paper La Tercera. He put the most likely international offering at around 30% of the group's total shares.

For banking subsidiary Banco Consorcio the plan is to increase its current 1.2% Chilean market share in total loans to 2% in the short term.

In Peru, where Consorcio has a 40.1% stake in local insurer La Positiva Vida, "the market presents opportunities for achieving organic growth," said Büchi, although he spoke of the need to study the market impact of the country's pension reform, which allows the withdrawal of up to 95% of accumulated pension funds at the moment of retiring.

"The annuities markets could see a contraction," he added. "In the long term, however, this reform does not affect the appeal of the local insurance market, as in Peru an insurance product with associated savings will be increasingly important."

Finally, Büchi told La Tercera that Consorcio will more than double its current US$13bn assets under management in less than ten year.

(Pictured: Consorcio Financiero's HQ in Santiago.)