Dexia sells Luxembourg unit after capital increase

Failed Franco-Belgian bank Dexia on Friday announced the sale of its Luxembourg unit for 730 million euros ($950 million) to a Qatari group after an associated capital increase of 204 million euros. Dexia struck a deal in April to sell 90 percent of Banque Internationale a Luxembourg (BIL) to Qatari investment group Precision Capital, owned by the Al Thani family and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Precision Capital will hold 90 percent and Luxembourg 10 percent. The sale "is a significant milestone in the implementation of the plan for the orderly resolution of the Dexia group," said CEO Karel De Boeck. Dexia said the final deal left it with a loss of 199 million euros that had been almost entirely booked in its first-half 2012 accounts. Only minor adjustments, a gain of four million euros, will be booked in the third quarter accounts. After the sale of its Turkish unit Denizbank last month, "a significant milestone has been passed on the path to implementing the plan for the orderly resolution of the Dexia group," it said in a statement. DenizBank was sold to Russia's Sberbank for some 3.0 billion euros, resulting in Dexia suffering a loss of 744 million euros, which it will book in the third quarter of this year. Dexia said last month that the proceeds of that deal would be used to reduce debts to Belfius, its former retail operations in Belgium that were rescued by the state at the end of 2011. First bailed out in 2008 amid the global financial slump, Dexia was not able to survive the subsequent turmoil of the eurozone debt crisis and in October last year the three eurozone countries stepped in to wind up the bank.