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Banque Centrale Populaire, Morocco's second-biggest lender by market value and which needs funds for an expansion plan, is to sell a 5 per cent stake to the International Finance Corporation for 1.74 billion dirhams. BCP said the deal valued its shares at 201 dirhams. The stock was unchanged at 198 dirhams at 1230 GMT. The company, which faces a shortage of liquidity in the domestic market, said the transaction will give it easier access to credit facilities that IFC provides to small and medium enterprises.
It was BCP's second deal with a foreign partner since April when French cooperative bank BPCE agreed to buy 5 per cent stake, also at 201 dirhams. In June, Populaire said it would pay 1 billion dirhams for a 50 per cent stake in Ivory Coast lender Group Banque Atlantique which is active in Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Morocco raised 5.3 billion dirhams last year selling a 20 per cent stake in BCP to help fund a spending spree aimed at to winning over protesters inspired by the Arab Spring.
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