Algeria : CitiGroup withdraws its privatization bid for the CPA Bank
The US banking group “CitiGroup†has officially announced its decision to quit the race for the CPA Bank privatization which has been held in abeyance for more than a year now, owing to the high volatility of the world financial market.
The CPA planned privatization has been delayed several times, mostly on account of the acute subprime crisis in the US which cost the CitiGroup Bank huge financial losses estimated at about 15 billion dollars.
According to financial experts, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole of France are the two remaining banking contenders likely to take over the shared capital of the CPA.
The Algerian finance Minister Karim Djoudi said that the CPA file would be relaunched by the end of this month after a close study by the Algerian government of the adverse effects of the crippling subprime crisis which has also affected European Banks.