Citigroup rejected an offer from mining magnate Germán Larrea’s conglomerate Grupo Mexico to acquire its Grupo Financiero Banamex unit.
“After careful consideration of the proposal, including, but not limited to, financial aspects and the certainty of completion of the transaction, we inform Grupo Mexico that Citi rejects the offer,” said the bank, based in New York, in a statement this Thursday (9).
Last month, Citi announced it would sell a 25% stake to billionaire Fernando Chico Pardo as part of a plan to list the asset publicly. Then, Grupo Mexico made a surprise offer at the end of last week to acquire all of Banamex for around US$9.3 billion.
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Representatives for Grupo Mexico did not respond to requests for comment.
Larrea had emerged as a favorite to buy Banamex in late 2022, but negotiations with Citi collapsed in 2023 after then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador confiscated part of Larrea’s railway and made comments about a government stake in the bank. At the time, Citi said it would focus on a public offering of shares to divest from Banamex.
“Banamex may no longer be an investment opportunity for Grupo Mexico – at least for now,” wrote analyst Alfonso Salazar, from Bank of Nova Scotia, in a note. “However, investors may not forget that capital allocation risks appear to be increasing.”
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Grupo Mexico shares rose up to 6% after Citi announced the rejection of the proposal, but reduced gains to less than 2% in afternoon trading. Shares had plummeted more than 15% on Monday following Larrea’s bid, which wiped around $6 billion from his family’s fortune, amid concerns that acquiring a bank would further complicate the conglomerate, which controls mines in the Americas, as well as railroads and shopping malls in Mexico.
Grupo Mexico has about $9 billion in cash in its subsidiaries, Salazar wrote. “We question, for example, whether the Group may decide, at a future point, to build a position in Banamex when it becomes a public company.”
Earlier this Thursday, the Bloomberg reported that Mexican financial and antitrust authorities have received the formal request to approve Chico Pardo’s offer.
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“We are convinced that the transaction announced on September 24, 2025 and the planned initial public offering will allow us to complete the sale of Banamex responsibly and maximize value for our shareholders,” Citi said in the statement.
According to Citi, Chico Pardo — through a company owned by him and his family — plans to acquire the stake for around 42 billion pesos (US$2.3 billion). Mexican officials signaled continued support for Chico Pardo’s bid, the agency said. Bloomberg.
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