Category: Brazil

Fitch has changed the outlook on Brazilian railroad firm America Latina Logistica (ALL) to positive from stable. The action reflects the company’s consistent and improving operational performance, evident in its cash generation measures, the agency adds. “Fitch expects that ALL’s consolidated credit measures will continue to strengthen in 2008 and 2009, reflecting the positive growth and performance of its business and the synergies that have been efficiently captured among the various networks that comprise the group,” the agency says. Fitch also affirms the local and foreign currency long-term ratings at B+ and the local scale rating at BBB+, it says. ALL’s railroad network, some 20,000km in extension, mainly transports soybeans and other agricultural and industrial products in Brazil and Argentina.

Brazilian petrochemicals producer Braskem is kicking off the yearly post-Labor Day debt bonanza with a new facility, set to be unveiled Wednesday, at a bank meeting in Sao Paulo. LatAm’s largest company in the sector is targeting $500m in 5-year pre-export funds that will be used to extend a $1.2bn bridge it took out with ABN AMRO, Citi and Calyon last year to acquire competitors Ipiranga and Copesul, say people close to the deal. That facility steps up from 35bp over Libor to 55bp in the second year of drawdown. The new loan will offer Libor plus 175bp – the tight end of a 175bp-200bp range the company said earlier this year it would seek for this final step of the takeout. Braskem took out part of the bridge in late May with a $500m 2018 bond priced to yield 7.375%. The deal, rated BB+/Ba1, was upsized from a $400m launch size and led by ABN, Calyon and Citi. The new loan is being led by Calyon, Citi and Banco Real, formerly belonging to ABN AMRO and now part of Santander, which inherited the transaction through its acquisition of part of the Dutch bank. A second bank meeting will be held Friday in New York.

Cosan has raised $150m from foreign private investors to add to $35m of its own cash that funds its Radar agricultural real estate venture. The Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer follows in the footsteps of BrasilAgro and other firms who buy raw plots to develop as farmland for possible resale. Cosan will own 19% and operate Radar, which aims to develop sugar cane, soy and other crops in an attempt to hedge exposure to sugar and ethanol prices. A second fundraising is planned within the next two years, Cosan says. CFO Paulo Diniz told LatinFinance in June that Radar would eventually target about $500m.

Santander’s Brazilian unit Banespa has sold $300m in 2014 bonds backed by electronic payment rights. The issue for Brazil Foreign Diversified Payment Rights Finance is a securitization through a true sale of Santander’s current and future diversified payment rights (DPRs). The A minus transaction was privately placed at a floating rate. The bank did not disclose the interest rate it paid. In May, Santander sold $190m in 2015 DPR notes from the same program at a fixed spread.

Brazil’s Sabesp plans to sell BRL300m split between 2013 and 2015 debentures. It will set the amount of each series and the interest spread over the DI rate during bookbuilding, the water utility says in a prospectus. Proceeds will pay maturing debentures and debt from the IDB. HSBC will manage the transaction with Citi, Caixa Economica Federal and Banco do Brasil as co-managers.