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Alupar Launches IPO

Brazil’s Alupar Investimento has launched an IPO, targeting more than BRL900m ($448m) and pricing April 22. The holding company for electric transmission and generation operations, familiar to Brazil’s domestic debt markets, plans to sell 40m primary units at BRL18.50-BRL21.50 each, according to offering documents, indicating a BRL920m sale at the midpoint. The total assumes a 15% greenshoe. A 20% hot issue is also possible. A unit is made up of one Alupar ordinary share and two preferred shares. The issuer is raising funds to be used 80% for obtaining and developing new concessions, and 20% for acquisitions. Alupar booked BRL917m in Ebitda in 2012, after getting BRL762m in 2011 and BRL657m in 2010. About 87% of its revenue comes from the transmission operations, consisting of 5,700km of lines in Brazil and Chile. Alupar operates 179 megawatts of generation capacity and has 484 megawatts under development, through five hydroelectric assets in Brazil and Colombia and one Brazilian wind farm. BTG Pactual, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Itau and Santander are managing the transaction, which the issuer had filed for last year but held off, refiling this year. Alupar is 93% owned by the Godoy Pereira family, with the remainder held by the FGTS workers’ guarantee fund. Bad news has come out of some parts of the Brazilian electricity sector recently, though the last two ECM deals in the sector – Equatorial Energia in December 2012 and Taesa in July 2012 – received strong investor response. The Brazilian March-April pipeline got off to a strong start with the well-bid BRL705m follow-on for mall operator Multiplan, though airline rewards program operator Multiplus cancelled a sale due to poor conditions. The next up is sugar, ethanol and bioenergy producer Bisoev, targeting BRL800m in an April 15 sale. IPOs from Gol’s Smiles and Banco do Brasil’s insurance business are due to follow, among others.

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Gafisa Advances Alphaville Listing

Following up on a transaction it first contemplated last year, Brazil’s Gafisa has filed for Alphaville Urbanismo to become a listed company, according to the CVM, the first step in the IPO process. Claiming the market underestimated the value of the unit, the homebuilder last year mentioned carving out the high-income housing development through an IPO or selling a stake privately as possible remedies. An investor relations official at the company declines to comment on the process beyond Monday’s initial filing. Rothschild and Bain & Company have been advising on the matter. The market value of Alphaville inventories totaled BRL812m at the end of 2012, Gafisa claims in its most recent financial reports, an increase of 43% from the previous year. Gafisa bought 60% of the Alphaville unit in 2006, before adding another 20% in 2010.

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Argos Picks Banks

Colombia’s Cementos Argos has named JPMorgan and HSBC to lead a planned equity follow-on, according to sources familiar with the deal. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Itau are also on the transaction. Details and timing remain to be determined, but the maximum size approved recently by shareholders is 250m shares, which would raise COP2.18trn ($1.19bn) at the most recent COP8,700 closing price.

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Enersis Crosses Finish Line

Chile’s Enersis has auctioned off 157m primary shares, selling the last sliver of its CLP2.84trn ($6.00bn) equity capital increase and reaching 100% of its target, it says. The sale came at CLP182.30 per share, higher than the CLP173.00 price used in the rights offering period. The energy holdco for the LatAm assets of Spain’s Endesa sold 16.44bn shares in total, including through a $625m American Depositary Shares (ADS) sale. JPMorgan, BTG Pactual and Bank of America Merrill Lynch were global coordinators on the ADS sale, with Banchile, BBVA, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, LarrainVial, Morgan Stanley and Santander as bookrunners. JPMorgan, Celfin, BBVA, Santander, LarrainVial, Banchile and BAML managed the local side. The controversial transaction was approved in December, after months of back and forth with regulators and minority investors. Endesa subscribed its portion with its LatAm assets that don’t already belong to Enersis, and needed negotiations with Chilean pension funds and multiple outside evaluations to reach agreement on the assets’ value. The process will raise funds for acquisition opportunities and streamline Endesa’s operations in LatAm by placing all of its holdings under Enersis. Enersis shares closed at CLP182.31 Thursday.

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Germans Increase MPX Stake

Germany’s E.ON has agreed to pay at least BRL1.78bn ($886m) to increase its stake in Brazil’s MPX, MPX says, through a direct purchase of shares from controller Eike Batista and participation in a planned equity follow-on. Batista has agreed to sell 142m shares, or 24.5%, of the power generation company to E.ON, at BRL10.00 each, a price adjustable to as much as BRL11.00 each depending on certain conditions. The move takes E.ON to a 36.2% position. MPX plans to follow this with a public follow-on sale of primary shares, in which E.ON has committed to exercise its rights for at least BRL367m, at the same BRL10.00 per share price. BTG Pactual has been hired to manage the sale, for which the timing remains to be set. MPX and E.ON have signed a shareholder agreement establishing E.ON’s voting rights. The two parties’ existing joint venture is also to be folded back into MPX.

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Maxcom Extends Debt, Equity Tenders

Maxcom Telecomunicaciones has pushed back the deadline for its bond and equity tender to April 10, from March 27, it says. As of March 27, it had received acceptance from holders of $123m, or 61.44%, of the outstanding 11.0% 2014 bonds, and from holders of 355m, or 44.89%, Maxcom shares. Following its sale last year to private equity buyers, Maxcom is offering bondholders new 2020 step-up notes, at a rate of $1,000 per $1,000 principal, having also agreed to pay the early tender price through the conclusion of the entire offer. The 2020 bonds pay 6.0% during the first three years, 7.0% during the following two years and 8.0% during the final two years. It is offering MXP2.90 ($0.22) per share in the equity portion. Maxcom has also waived the minimum acceptance conditions for each offer. The debt and equity offers are each contingent on completion of the other. The offers follow the agreement last year for Mexican private equity firm Ventura Capital Privado to buy Maxcom, at an enterprise value of about $270m.

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Multiplus Grounds Follow-on

Brazil’s Multiplus has cancelled plans to sell shares in an equity follow-on, it says, citing poor market conditions. The airline mileage rewards program had been targeting $400m-equivalent through the sale of 31m primary shares. The deal had been scheduled for April 12, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BTG Pactual and JPMorgan managing. The news comes in contrast to the well-received follow-on last week from mall operator Multiplan, which sold $350m in an upsized transaction. A number of Brazilian equity issuers remain in the pipeline for April, beginning with a $400m IPO from Biosev, scheduled for April 15.

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Rio Bravo Readies Commercial RE Fund

Brazilian investment firm Rio Bravo is preparing a BRL366m ($182m) fundo de investimento imobiliario (FII) real estate fund, according to a prospectus. The fund is to contain eight commerical properties located mostly in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The timing remains to be determined. Citi and XP Investimentos are managing the transaction, which can be upsized to as much as BRL400m.

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BTG Preps RE Fund of Fund Retap

BTG Pactual is preparing to reopen its real estate fund of funds for up to BRL500m. The Fundo de Investimento Imobiliario (FII) BTG Pactual Fundo de Fundos invests in other FII funds, as well as in other real estate instruments, including certificados de credito imobiliarios (CRI) and letras hipotecarias (LH). As of December, 84% of the fund’s assets were FII shares, and 14% CRI. The transaction is able to be upsized by as much as BRL150m. BTG was due to conclude the rights offering period by April 5, and wrap up the reopening, the fund’s fifth, by May, according to a prospectus., BTG is managing the transaction. The fund’s shares closed at BRL124.00 each.

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Enersis Tops 99%

Chile’s Enersis reached a 99.04% shareholder subscription rate for its CLP2.84trn ($6.00bn) equity capital increase, it says. The energy holdco had sold 16.28bn of 16.44bn shares on offer as of the subscription period’s close, with the remainder to be offered in an auction today, at CLP173 each. The subscription period included the $625m sale of American Depositary Shares (ADS). JPMorgan, BTG Pactual and Bank of America Merrill Lynch were global coordinators on the ADS sale, with Banchile, BBVA, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, LarrainVial, Morgan Stanley and Santander as bookrunners. JPMorgan, Celfin, BBVA, Santander, LarrainVial, Banchile and BAML managed the local side. The controversial transaction was approved in December, after months of back and forth with regulators and minority investors. Endesa subscribed its portion with its LatAm assets that don’t already belong to Enersis, and needed negotiations with Chilean pension funds and multiple outside evaluations to reach agreement on the assets’ value. The process will raise funds for acquisition opportunities and streamline Endesa’s operations in LatAm by placing all of its holdings under Enersis. Enersis shares closed at CLP182.41 Wednesday.

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