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Before the year’s end, the state will sell off 51 percent of its 100 percent holding in CPA, one of the five biggest banks in the country, Abdelhamid Temmar said in interviews carried by the national press. The operation, prepared with the help of the Rothschild investment bank, was expected to be completed by February. Several foreign houses were reported interested in taking a share in CPA capital, including the French banks Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole, the British bank HSBC, Spain’s Banco de Santander and the US Citibank. Temmar said a second bank, the Banque de Developpement Local, had likewise been earmarked for privatisation. But the three other big ones - BADR, Banque Nationale d’Algerie and Banque Exterieure d’Algerie - would remain in public ownership and were to be modernised. Credit Populaire d’Algerie, established in 1966, represents 12 percent of Algeria’s banking sector, employing 4 700 staff. Sapa-AFP | ||||||||||||||||||
Algeria to privatise bank