| In 4Q04, Unibanco sold its equity stakes in credit card issuer Credicard and in
credit card processor Orbitall. The price of the sale was equivalent to 17.1 times
the combined earnings of the company and 10.4 times the combined stockholders'
equity of both companies. The transaction was settled in cash, yielding a cash
inflow of R$1.7 billion up to the end of December 2004.
The 33.3% stake in Credicard was acquired by the other partners in the company,
Itaú and Citibank, each now holding a 50% ownership. The 33.3% stake
in Orbital was acquired by Itaú. Unibanco was not Orbitall's client,
once it is self-sufficient in the processing of its credit card base and private
label cards. The bank manages some 17.5 million credit cards, 8 million of those
issued by its fully-owned subsidiaries and 9.5 million private label cards.
The results of this sale were entirely absorbed by the amortization of goodwill
of incorporated companies and by non-recurring operating provisions for restructuring
expenses, credits and fiscal contingencies, as shown in the financial statements,
under the caption "Extraordinary Items".
Unibanco maintained its share in Redecard, which contributed R$97 million to
2004 results.
|
