Guatemalan Bank Revisits Bolsa Dream

Guatemala’s Banco Industrial is reconsidering a listing on Mexico’s Bolsa, which it tried to do before the 2008-2009 credit crisis put paid to the transaction. Guatemala’s largest bank would consider a 20%-25% float, Luis Prado, director of the bank’s international division tells LatinFinance, noting that the exact timing has yet to be determined. Fresh cross-border debt issuance, including DPR securitizations, which it last raised in 2005 for $200m, could also be an option to fund expansion, he says. “Our goal is to expand through Central America,” Prado says. Already operating in Honduras, the bank opens in December in El Salvador, after receiving the appropriate licensing this year. Panama and Costa Rica are more distant possibilities for organic or acquisition-based expansion, he says. The bank will focus on organic growth in the domestic market to keep it competitive in the intensifying credit market, Prado says, but will not focus on domestic M&A. Fitch last week upgraded to positive from stable the BB credit rating of Industrial. The improved outlook reflects the bank’s strong local franchise, resilient asset quality and well-contained credit costs, adequate funding and liquidity, and good and stable profitability, says the agency. Fitch adds that the rating could be lifted if the bank sustains these trends and further improves capital adequacy. Industrial had 27% of the Guatemalan banking system’s assets and deposits as of June.