Latin American Economy & Business - April 2016 (ISSN 1741-7430)

Corpbanca and Itaú Fuse: On 1 April, the Chile-based Corpbanca and the local subsidiary of Brazil’s Itaú Unibanco formalised their long-drawn-out merger process. The merged entity, the fourth largest bank in the Chilean market, will be known formally as Itaú Corpbanca. It will trade under the Itaú brand, and will have US$41bn in assets and a US$31bn loan book. The Brazilian parent, Itaú UInibanco will control the bank, with a 33.58% shareholding. CorpGroup, former owner of Corpbanca, will have 33.13% of the shares, with the remaining 33.29% in the hands of a range of minority shareholders. The merged Chilean bank will have a 66.28% controlling interest in Corpbanca Colombia and 100% of the shares of Itaú Colombia.