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Empresas y finanzas

World Bank's IFC asks for review of Itau, CorpBanca deal


    SANTIAGO (Reuters) - The International Finance Corp (IFC), the World Bank's private investment arm, is seeking an independent analysis of Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco Holding SA's planned takeover of Chile's CorpBanca, of which the IFC holds a 5 percent stake.

    The IFC needs to give its consent for the deal to materialize, CORPBANCA (CORPBANCA.)(CORPBANCA.)said in a filing with Chile's SVS securities regulator on Monday night.

    The tie-up between regional peers Itaú and CorpBanca , which would be Latin America's largest banking combination since 2008, has already faced stiff resistance from minority shareholder U.S. investment firm Cartica Management LLC.

    Now the IFC "has requested an investment bank to evaluate the terms and conditions of the deal," Corpbanca said in its statement. This is part of the IFC's analysis of "whether to give (the deal) its consent, a prerequisite for the realization of the transaction," the Chilean bank added.

    For its part, Cartica, which oversees about $2 billion in assets and owns about 3.2 percent of CorpBanca's common shares, has argued that Itaú and CorpBanca's controlling shareholder, billionaire Alvaro Saieh, violated U.S. anti-fraud and disclosure rules.

    (Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)