The Qatar Investment Authority, the nation's sovereign wealth fund, is the leader of a consortium of investors that is set to buy Dexia SA's (DEXB.BT) Luxembourg retail banking subsidiary, a person familiar with the discussions said Thursday.
The sale is part of a plan to break up Dexia set in motion after Moody's Investors Service this week warned that the bank's heavy dependence on wholesale funding threatened its stability.
The Luxembourg government would have a blocking minority stake in the business, Dexia Banque Internationale a Luxembourg, if the deal is finalized, which could happen over the weekend, the person said.
Dexia will also have to sell other units under the breakup plan, including its asset management business and DenizBank AS (DENIZ.IS), the Turkish retail bank. The asset management business will be easiest to sell, the person said.
"There's interest from all over the world," he said.
The sale of DenizBank will take longer because interest will be limited to buyers from the region, according to the person.
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