Brazian bank Itau Unibanco buys card payment processor Redecard for $6.81 bn

Brazil's Itau Unibanco, the country's largest private-sector bank by market value, is paying 11.773 billion reais ($6.81 billion) to buy card payment processor Redecard.
 
Based in Sao Paulo, Itau, is buying 336.4 million common shares it does not already own of Redecard, for 35 reais each, a premium of 9 per cent over Redecard's closing price of 32.04 reais yesterday.

With 2011 revenues of $1.5 billion, Barueri, Brazil-based Redecard is the country's second-largest card-payment processor by market value.

Redecard, which competes with larger rival Cielo, was listed in 2007 on the São Paulo Stock Exchange and raised 4.07 billion reais.

MasterCard sold its stake in Redecard in January 2008, while Citibank sold its stake in March 2009. After a shareholding restructuring, Itaú became majority shareholder of Redecard.