Citigroup announced Thursday that it had rejected an offer from Mexican conglomerate Grupo México to purchase the bank Banamex.
Last Friday, Grupo México, a mining, transport and infrastructure conglomerate headed up by Mexican billionaire Germán Larrea, made a US $9.3 billion unsolicited offer for Banamex.
Grupo México seeks to acquire up to 100% of Banamex from Citigroup
On Thursday, Citi said in a statement that “after careful consideration of the proposal, including but not limited to financial considerations and transaction certainty, we have advised Grupo México that Citi rejects the offer.”
“We firmly believe that the transaction we announced on September 24, 2025 and the planned IPO will allow us to complete the divestiture of Banamex in a responsible manner and maximize value for our shareholders,” said Citi, a New York-based multinational investment bank that purchased Banamex for $12.5 billion in 2001.
On Sept. 24, Citi announced that “a company wholly-owned” by Mexican businessman Fernando Chico Pardo “and members of his immediate family” had agreed to purchase a 25% stake in Banamex for around $2.3 billion.
The U.S. bank announced last December that it had completed the separation of retail bank Banamex from its institutional banking business in Mexico as it prepared to list Banamex on the stock exchange.
On Monday, Citi said that it remained “committed to realizing the full value of Banamex for our shareholders, and the agreement we announced with Fernando Chico Pardo and the proposed IPO continues to be our preferred path to delivering that outcome.”
It said at the time that it hadn’t received Grupo México’s offer, but committed to review it in a “responsible manner.”
Citi’s IPO, or initial public offering, of Banamex shares will occur on the Mexican Stock Exchange, probably sometime in 2026.
Reuters reported that shares in Grupo México climbed more than 4.5% on Thursday after Citi announced that it had rejected the conglomerate’s offer for Banamex.
The news agency reported that news of Grupo México’s $9.3 billion bid for the bank had “rocked local markets, wiping off billions in the firm’s market capitalization.”
Grupo México considered buying Banamex more than two years ago
Grupo México’s surprise bid last week to purchase Banamex came more than two years after it backed away from previous negotiations to buy the bank.
In late 2022, Grupo México was reported to be in advanced talks about a potential purchase of the bank.
In February 2023, Reuters reported that the conglomerate had secured US $5 billion to buy Banamex. However, Citi said in May of that year that it would seek to sell Citibanamex on the stock market, ending conjecture that a sale to Grupo México was imminent.
Citi CEO Jane Fraser said at the time that the bank concluded that “the optimal path to maximizing the value of Banamex for our shareholders and advancing our goal to simplify our firm” was to “focus solely on an IPO of the business.”
Citi first announced its intention to exit the retail banking space in Mexico in early 2022.
With reports from Reuters
