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Providian Financial to sell Argentine operations
SAN FRANCISCO — Ailing credit card issuer Providian Financial Corp. on Thursday announced a deal to sell its Argentina operations to a group of Buenos Aires investors for an undisclosed sum.
The San Francisco-based company put its Argentine business on the sales block in November as part of its survival efforts.
As the economy soured last year, more of Providian’s customers defaulted on their loans, saddling the company with a fourth-quarter loss of $481.2 million.
Providian, once the nation’s fifth-largest credit card issuer, previously sold 3.3 million of its lowest-risk accounts to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for $2.87 billion and sold 500,000 accounts in the United Kingdom to Barclays Bank for an undisclosed sum.
The company’s shares fell 21 cents to close at $5.10 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.