Cemex Concedes Ground on Pricing

Mexican cement company Cemex conceded some ground to domestic investors Tuesday after pricing a MXP2.5bn ($202m) ABS due 2015 at benchmark rate TIIE+200bp, or 100bp over official price talk. “At the end of the day, they raised the pricing to a level where we wanted to participate,” notes a participating investor. Several accounts were seeking at least 200bp over, which was already 50bp inside where the company priced its last ABS issue in 2009. The deal was oversubscribed by just 1x with 80% participation coming from institutional investors and the rest comprising wealth managers. “We raised MXP2.5bn which reflects confidence in the Mexican market,” says a banker on the deal. Proceeds will be used to pre-pay MXP2.2bn in asset-backed bonds due December 2011, which were priced at TIIE+250bp in 2009. Both bond issuances were backed by a trust that held account receivables originated by Cemex Mexico and Cemex Concretos. The new instruments will be backed additionally by Cemex Agegados and Cemex Vivienda. Cemex was last in the international market in July with a $659m retap of its existing 9% 2018s through Citi. Ixe was the sole lead on this transaction. The bonds are rated mxAAA on a national scale by S&P.