HSBC Holdings yesterday said that it had agreed to sell its Latin American operations to Colombia's Banco GNB Sudameris for $400 million in cash, as Europe's largest lender continues to sell non-core assets in order to cut costs and boost profitability.

The London-based bank is selling its operations in Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay, which had 62 branches and assets worth $4.4 billion as of end-December.

HSBC has 62 branches in the four Latin American countries, 24 in Peru, 20 in Colombia, 11 in Uruguay and 7 in Paraguay - out of more than 3,000 across the Americas.

Antonio Losada, president and CEO of HSBC Latin America and the Caribbean, said, "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Banco GNB Sudameris as we seek to focus on our operations where we see the greatest potential for sustainable growth for HSBC."

The Colombia and Peru deals are expected to close in the last quarter of this year, while Uruguay and Paraguay should close in the first quarter of 2013, the lender said in a statement.

Bogota-based GNB Sudameris Bank is a financial group controlled by Grupo Gilinski. It was created from the merger between the Bank and the Bank Sudameris Colombia Tequendama,

In 2003, Gilinski acquired and subsequently merged Banco Sudameris and Banco Tequendema. The merger created GNB Sudameris, a bank with assets of nearly $6 billion and ranks among the top 10 largest banks in Colombia.

Under Gulliver HSBC is undertaking a major revamp of its global operations aimed at cutting costs by $3.5 billion, including steps like withdrawing from retail banking in some countries.

Last year, it sold its US credit-card business and a 195-branch network in New York, and agreed to sell its Canadian retail brokerage, apart from exiting retail banking in Russia, Chile and Poland.

In February, HSBC announced that it will withdraw out of retail banking in Japan and close its remaining services for individual customers, and a month later agreed to sell its general insurance businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Argentina and Mexico to French insurer AXA and Australia's QBE Insurance Group for $914 million in cash.
 
Last month the bank said it was in talks over the potential sale of its Mauritius retail banking and wealth management division.

It also sold its business in Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador in January to Banco Davivienda of Colombia for $801 million, and recently sold its pension-fund and general-insurance businesses in Mexico.

It is also holding talks with several investors over the potential sale of its South Korean and Pakistani assets as chief executive Stuart Gulliver looks to shore up the bank's balance sheet.