FARAC Retail Syndication Pokes Along

Retail syndication of a $3.7bn peso-equivalent loan for Mexico’s FARAC toll road concession is moving along slowly with little fanfare. Some MLAs want to reduce and are arranging to sell down portions of their holdings to new participants. The process is being coordinated by Santander but the syndication looks more like a secondary market sale than a unified process. Some of the leads, like Banobras, are not keen on reducing their ticket sizes. Once all the banks agree on reductions, they must all execute a sale on the same day, expected to be in January. So far, only a few banks have expressed interest in a piece of the peso-denominated loan and the final number of retail participants will only be known when they all sign together. One banker close to the process says banks may get reduced by $25m and $50m, short of the expectations of some MLAs holding $150m, who were expecting to get cut by 50%. The loan is a 7-year stepping up from 165bp over Libor in year one to 185bp in years two and three, 200bp in years four and five, and 225bp in years six and seven. Santander led the transaction from its Mexico office. It was joined by bookrunners Dexia, NordLB, HSBC and Banorte and the following MLAs: Inbursa, Banobras, ING and WestLB.