A report quoted BTG Pactual's chief financial officer as saying it may spin off its stake in the Zurich-listed bank.

Latin America’s BTG Pactual, the investment bank, may offload its 29 per cent stake in EFG International, Reuters has reported, quoting the Brazil-based firm’s chief financial officer.

BTG’s stake is worth around $600 million and selling it will be a similar move to when BTG span off Engelhart Commodities Trading Partners Group in 2016, CFO João Dantas was quoted as saying. The report said that no decision had yet been taken.

EFG International operates in regions such as Europe and Asia. The Reuters report quoted Dantas saying that the Swiss firm drags profitability. It said that EFG’s return on equity came in at only 4.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

“BTG and EFG are two completely different businesses,” said the CFO. “While BTG is a fast-growing business, EFG is more stable,” he said. 

In December 2017, EFG International completed its integration of Switzerland-based BSI, slightly more than a year after closing its acquisition of this business. EFG said it has made “considerable progress” in de-risking the BSI business and dealing with legacy compliance issues (BSI’s Singapore operation was banned from the Asian jurisdiction in 2016 following serious lapses around money laundering controls.) The firm, which reported a loss in 2017, has subsequently swung back into profit after a challenging period for results.