Category: Argentina

Argentina yesterday, Wednesday, sold $500 million of its new dollar-denominated sovereign bonds, Bonar V. This is the second tranche of a total offering of $1.5 billion. Argentina sold $500 million of the five-year paper on March 22 this year at a yield of 8.36%. This time around, Argentina’s managed to achieve a lower yield of 8.09%. The bonds carry a coupon rate of 7%.

Banco Galicia, Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires and Nuevo Banco Bisel together cancelled $46.1 million of debt owing to Argentina’s Central Bank yesterday, Wednesday. The debt represented the 27th installment in the repayment plan drawn up by the Central Bank in 2003. The money was originally lent to the banks during the country’s financial meltdown at the end of 2001, start of 2002. Many banks have paid their outstanding debt to the Central Bank early as the economy has improved.

Argentine bank Macro Bansud has won the bidding for state-owned Nuevo Banco Bisel, the Rosario-based bank that specializes in the agriculture sector. Macro bid $268 million for Bisel at the beginning of April, against a bid of $196 million from the only other interested party, local bank Hipotecaria. Banco Bisel, formerly a subsidiary of France’s Credit Agricole, was taken over by the government in the wake of the 2001 economic crisis in Argentina and Credit Agricole’s pull-out from the country.

Meanwhile, Argentina’s Central Bank has also raised its growth forecast, predicting expansion this year of just over 7%, up from 6%. Increasing activity in the first quarter of the year and evidence of a “robust economy in the face of volatility in the international market” were reasons cited by the Bank for its optimistic note. Last year, the economy expanded by 9%.

Argentine financial group Supervielle, which controls local banks Supervielle and Banex, may become the first domestic financial entity to issue a local currency bond abroad. The bank said it had put out feelers with international investors to test their interest in such a product. Supervielle is looking to raise foreign capital with the bond, which it says will carry a yield of between 12% and 14%.

Argentine Banco Hipotecario has made an offering of $250 million of bonds. The 10-year bonds, placed by Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, carry a coupon of 9.75% and a yield of 9.875%. The bonds mature April 27 2016. Last November, the bank made the first international bond offering by an Argentine issuer since restructuring post 2001 economic crisis. That issue was also arranged by Deutsche Bank and Citigroup.

The Argentine province of Córdoba has cancelled the sale of local bank Banco de Córdoba (Bancor), originally slated to go under the hammer in February. The local government had planned to sell its 49% stake to private investors to raise $300 million to recapitalize the bank. The local government said that because of the bank’s improved profitability it is not in the province’s best interests now to sell its stake. Córdoba will use the sale of property to fund the bank instead.

Three Argentine banks have expressed an interest in entering the neighboring Uruguayan market. Patagonia, Macro Bansud and Supervielle have all submitted proposals to the Central Bank of Uruguay. The financial crisis in Uruguay, in 2002, saw the total number of financial entities in the country drop from 48 to 31, while the number of international banks there more than halved – falling from 13 to six.

Argentine agricultural group Cresud has increased its stake in property conglomerate IRSA from 22.6% to 28.1%. Earlier this week Cresud announced that it is planning to raise around $200 million from an IPO of Brazilian company Brasilagro, in which it has a controlling stake, to fund expansion in that market. Cresud, owned by Argentine family Elsztain, has a 49.6% stake in Brasilagro. It also owns retail chain Alto Palermo Centros Comerciales and Banco Hipotecario in Argentina.