PARIS: The fallen Franco-Belgian bank Dexia said on Thursday it had finalised the sale of a 90 percent stake in its Luxembourg unit to a fund linked to the Qatari royal family.
"The transaction price for the stake of Dexia in Banque Internationale Luxembourg is 730 million euros," it said in a statement, adding the closing of the deal was still subject to regulatory approval, including from the European Commission which opened an in-depth probe into the sale on Tuesday.
Under the transaction, the Qatari-linked investment fund Precision Capital will acquire a 90 percent stake and the state of Luxembourg the remaining 10 percent in Dexia BIL's retail banking operations.
Dexia BIL's asset management and investment arms were not part of the deal.
First bailed out in 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis, Dexia could not cope with the turmoil of the eurozone debt quagmire and in October, France, Belgium and Luxembourg stepped in to wind up the bank and sell off viable operations.
Plans to sell off Dexia BIL's retail operations to the Qatari fund were announced in November.
On Tuesday, the European Commission said it was launching an in-depth probe into the sale to verify whether it has been "conducted on market conditions and therefore does not contain any state aid element."
"Given that the proposed sale is the result of exclusive negotiations with one private investor the Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether the price of the transaction" is in line with its market valuation, it said in a statement.
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