Category: Bonds

HSBC is seeking to increase its stake in Banco Salvadoreño (Bancosal) and Inversiones Financieras Bancosal (IFB), and has offered minority shareholders $3 per share for the outstanding stock in IFB and $40 for each Bancosal share. HSBC acquired a 56.2% stake in IFB, the holding company of Bancosal, when it bought Panama’s Grupo Banistmo last November for $1.7 billion. The two public tender offers will cost around $191 million, estimate the Bank. It expects to complete the transactions by the end of March.

Andean Development Corporation (CAF), the Caracas-based regional multilateral financial institution, has followed up its local-currency issue in Venezuela last year with a second offering of the five-year paper. The Corporation sold $50 million worth (107.5 billion bolivares) of bolivar-denominated bonds via Citibank on Thursday. Last June CAF issued $100 million worth of local-currency bonds in Venezuela, the first time such paper had been issued by a multilateral in the country since the 1970s.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has signed a three-year guarantee facility with Mexican sofol Hipotecaria Su Casita to help it expand its access to local capital markets on more favorable terms, reduce its reliance on public funding sources and increase its mortgage origination. The agreement makes available up to $75 million in partial credit guarantees to support the issuance of up to $500 million in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) by Su Casita. The specialized mortgage company expects to double the size of its mortgage portfolio to around $4 billion equivalent by 2010. This is the first time the IDB has used a guarantee facility to support a medium-term RBMS program, allowing the issuer to allocate IDB guarantee authority where it considers it most beneficial. “We expect to replicate this programmatic approach in Mexico, as well as other markets in the region,” commented Hans Schulz, head of financial markets at the IDB’s private sector department.

Bladex, the supranational bank specialized in foreign trade in Latin America, is out with a $150 million five-year revolver through BBVA and UniCredit. The investment-grade syndicated loan pays a 37.5bp margin and proceeds are for trade and working capital. Commitments are due mid-February, with closing at the end of that month.

Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) has reopened its 5.75% of 2017 bond for $250 million to take the total size to $500 million. The price was 99.503 to yield 4.796%, or 102bp over US Treasuries. It was rated A1/A/A+. Merrill Lynch was the sole lead on the tap of the bond that was first issued in September 2006. The deal, due January 12, 2007, is the first of the year from CAF, which continues a program of diversifying its funding and reducing cost.