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LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - HSBC said the plannedsale of its banking business in Uruguay had collapsed, almosttwo years after it agreed to sell the business to Banco GNBSudameris.
HSBC, Europe's biggest bank by market value, said on Mondaythe deal fell through after a deadline to complete by March 31passed. It declined to say why the two banks did not come to anagreement in time.
HSBC said it would explore alternatives for a sale of thebusiness.
HSBC agreed in May 2012 to sell its operations in Colombia,Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay for $400 million to Banco GNBSudameris, a financial group controlled by GrupoGilinski, a family of Colombian bankers with a long record inthe industry. The sale of the operations in the first threecountries went through.
HSBC has exited several countries in Latin America as partof a retreat from countries where it lacked scale or wasunprofitable, sometimes due to higher regulatory costs.
The bank did not say how much the Uruguay operation made upof the original deal value. HSBC had 62 branches across the fourcountries covered in the deal, including 11 in Uruguay. It hadbeen expected to complete the Uruguay sale in the first quarterof 2013.
(Reporting by Karen Rebelo in Bangalore and Steve Slater inLondon; Editing by Larry King)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)