Chilean food products company Agrosuper is indicating that it may raise up to $400m equivalent in the local bond markets during 2H. This comes after it established a program that allows it to sell up to UF8.5m ($403m) in 10 or 30-year bonds. Proceeds would be used to repay debt and for expansion. It has not yet indicated whether banks have been mandated, and finance officials could not be reached for comment. Agrosuper is actively looking for capital in 2011 as it ramps up export capacity, and is also planning an IPO this year through Banchile and LarrainVial. Agrosuper specializes in ham, poultry and salmon, and has operations in Italy, China, Japan, Mexico and South Africa.
Category: Chile
Posted inDaily Brief
CAP Plans Bond Buyback
Chilean steelmaker Cap plans to buy back any and all of its $200m of outstanding 7.375% 2036 bonds, The purchase price will be equal to the present value of $1,000 in principal, using the July 19 reference yield on the 4 3/8% UST due May 15 2041 plus a fixed spread of 220bp. CAP expects settlement to take place on July 22. The offer expires at 5:00pm New York City time on July 19. Citi is acting as dealer manager. On Friday the bonds were trading at a wide bid-offer of 105.5-107.00, according to a trader. The 2036s were originally sold in 2006 through Citi and HSBC and priced at 99.761 to yield 7.395% or 250bp over. The BBB minus rated CAP recently extended a 3-year loan into a 5-year facility, upsizing to $200m from an original $150m.
Posted inDaily Brief
Entel Plots Domestic Issue
Chile’s Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Entel) is looking to sell up to UF5m ($237m) in 10 and 30-year bonds in the domestic market. The timing is for the second half of this year, says a banker on the deal. The telecom is raising funds for investments, working capital and debt repayments. It has hired IMTrust and Bice as leads.
Posted inDaily Brief
Chile Continues Water Utility Selldown
Chile’s Corporacion de Fomento de la Produccion (Corfo) has begun investor presentations for the July 15 follow-on sale of shares in water utilities Essbio and Essval, which could raise around $1bn equivalent. Following its $979m sale last month of nearly all of its stake in water utility Aguas Andinas, the government entity is now looking to offload 24.4% of Esval and 38.4% of Essbio, as the Chilean government proceeds with an asset sale plan to help with earthquake recovery-related budgetary needs. The plan, according to a road show presentation, is to offer 10.2bn class A and C Essbio shares, which would raise about CLP264.3bn ($573m) based on Thursday’s closing prices. It also plans to sell 3.62bn Esval class A and C shares, which would raise about CLP361.9bn ($780m) at Thursday’s closing prices. However, each of the share classes are rather illiquid, with Essbio having a 5.4% free float and Esval less than 1%, making size estimations tricky. The auction and the price announcement are both expected July 15. Corfo is set to keep a 5.0% position in each company, both of which are controlled by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Banchile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and IM Trust are managing, the same trio that handled Aguas Andinas.
Posted inDaily Brief
BAML Beefs up Chile Operations
BAML is beefing up its Chile operations with the hires of Rodrigo Demaria as director and head of corporate banking Southern Cone and Cristian Aguirre as vice president. Demaria will be based in Santiago and will report to David Jana, country executive for the Southern Cone region, and to Carlos Ibanez, head of corporate banking for Spanish speaking LatAm. Aguirre, who is also based in Santiago, reports to Demaria. Demaria was most recently at BBVA as executive director, corporate and investment banking. Aguirre also joins from BBVA, where he was a senior relationship manager in international corporate banking based in New York and Chile.
Posted inDaily Brief
Chilean Developer Plots Bond Sale
Chilean homebuilder Paz Corp is planning to raise UF1.5m ($71m) in Chile’s domestic markets. Proceeds from the sale of the 10-year bonds will go to refinance debt and to increase participation in its subsidiaries. No information on the timing was given, and officials at the company could not be reached for comment. Local shop EuroAmerica has been hired to manage the transaction.
Posted inDaily Brief
Corpbanca Prices Follow-on
Corpbanca has auctioned off CLP135.2bn ($290m) in new shares in a follow-on Friday at CLP7.35 a share. The deal, led by Celfin and Corpbanca, is the first of three preferential offerings. The second round is set to conclude August 1.
Posted inMagazine
Let’s Try That Again
European funds are increasingly eyeing LatAm PE in an effort to gain exposure to the growth in middle class consumption.
But can they avoid the mistakes of the past?
Posted inDaily Brief
AquaChile Prepays Debt
AquaChile has prepaid $163m of $406m in outstanding debt and is looking to refinance the remaining $243m through a 7-year loan that comes with a 2-year grace period and initially pays 6-month Libor+120bp. The Chilean utility does not say which bank is providing the loan.
Posted inDaily Brief
CB Auctions Banco de Chile Options
Chile’s central bank has priced a CLP24.35bn ($51.5m) notional-value sale of share options in Banco de Chile, according to the Santiago Bolsa. The 392.8m options to buy shares at CLP62 through July 4 represent the central bank’s preferential rights from Banco de Chile’s $180m equity follow-on in March. The options priced at CLP3.10 each. The central bank is a minority shareholder in Banco de Chile going back to a government intervention during a 1980s financial crisis, and had decided not to exercise its rights in the March sale. BanChile and LarrainVial managed the recent sale of options. Banco de Chile shares closed at CLP66.75 Tuesday. The CLP62 price matches the price of the 1.4bn share sale in March.