Category: Bonds

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $120 million long-term financing facility to Peru’s second-largest commercial bank – BBVA Banco Continental – to help support the Bank’s plans for mortgage origination. The financing will take the form of senior and subordinated debt and will “better match the maturity of its mortgage portfolio”, according to the IDB. Part of the financing will be disbursed in local currency to help develop soles-denominated mortgage portfolios in Peru.

Thumbprint ATMs, unveiled this month by Citibank in India, could also work in other parts of the world, including Latin America. “We are looking at how biometrics can be used more broadly as a way to provide lower income individuals access to banking services”, Robert Annibale, the Global Director of Citigroup’s Microfinance Group told LatinFinance. The new ATMs aid illiterate customers and have multiple language capabilities as well as voice navigation for balance inquiry, deposits and withdrawals. In India, the bank has set up a program, “Citibank Pragati” for microfinance customers, to try and increase participation in the banking system. Biometric ATMs are located at the bank’s partner microfinance institution’s offices and other areas near prospective customers.

Belize hopes to have greater access to financing after becoming a non-founding beneficiary of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei). Belize applied to become part of the Bank last August. The Bank currently has 10 members, of which five – El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica – are founding members and five are extraregional members: Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Taiwan. Panama and Dominican Republic are also hoping to join.

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) has approved a $37 million loan to Nicaragua for the design and construction of its Larreynaga hydroelectric project in Jinotega. The power plant, which is set to take two years to complete, will have an installed capacity of 17MW and will help towards making up the country’s energy shortfall by boosting Nicaragua’s output by 3%. The country has seen a growing energy crisis this year and a mounting number of power outages.

The region’s largest multilateral lender, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), said Friday it had member agreement on a framework for debt relief for Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua. The Bank gave no final details of the agreement and concluded that a board of governors meeting in January 2007 in Amsterdam will define technical details for the implementation of the new debt reduction framework, with a presentation of agreements to be given in the Bank’s March meeting, due to be held in Guatemala City. The debt forgiveness will total between $2.1 billion and $3.5 billion, according to experts.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is considering launching a local-currency bond in Argentine pesos to add to those already issued in Mexican, Colombian, Chilean and Brazilian currencies. IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno has been visiting Argentina and has signed up to $1 billion in loans from the Bank to Argentina. According to reports in the Argentine media, Moreno and Central Bank president Martín Redrado have agreed to form a working party with experts from both institutions to examine the issue. The IDB, through its financing arm – the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), most recently issued a local-currency bond in Colombia last December. The Corporation successfully placed 150 billion pesos ($66 million equivalent) of the five-year bonds.

CAF, the Caracas-based Andean multilateral, has priced a five-year euro-denominated bond issue, its first since May 2004. The EUR300 million FRN due November 16, 2011 priced at par to yield 40bp over Euribor. It was rated A1/A/A+ and done through Calyon and HSBC. Guidance was mid-40bps over three-month Euribor. The issue was expected to be at least EUR200 million and came more than seven times oversubscribed, according to a person close to the transaction. The Reg S deal was under London law and will be listed in the UK. Sales to Italy were accepted. CAF issued EUR150 million in a three-year FRN via BBVA and Deutsche in May 2004 with a 30bp over three-month Euribor coupon. Besides raising cash, its return to euros may be an attempt to set an example for other Latin borrowers who have long neglected this market.

Argentina is hoping to secure up to $1 billion in loans from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) over the next few days. The loans are destined for various projects including electricity transmission, satellites and social programs. Of the $1 billion agreed, around $580 million is to be allocated to an electricity transmission project in the north of the country, linking the north-east with the north-west. Argentina is the second-largest recipient of IDB lending in the region, after Brazil and ahead of Mexico, according to the Bank’s president Luis Moreno.