Category: M&A

Mexican mortgage lender Metrofinanciera is in talks to buy local finance company Crédito y Casa, according to Reuters. If the acquisition goes ahead it will make Monterrey-based Metrofinanciera the largest Sofol in the country, moving ahead of Hipotecaria La Casita. Reports have been swirling since last year of a merger between the two entities with a price of around $180 million suggested.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, has granted Davivienda a $240 million financing package to support the Colombian bank’s acquisition of state-owned bank Bancafé and to strengthen its capital base. The financing comprises a $75 million direct equity investment and $165 million in subordinated debt. The $75 million injection of capital into Davivienda takes the IFC’s stake in the Colombian bank to 9%. Davivienda bid $927 million last October to win control of state-owned Bancafé.

Mexican financial group Banorte has closed its acquisition of US remittances company UniTeller Holdings for $20 million. The acquisition is part of Banorte’s strategy to target clients in the US, who sent back $20 billion in remittances to Mexico in 2005. Last January, Banorte announced it was to buy 70% of Texas-based Inter National Bank for $259 million.

US-based telecoms solutions company Global Crossing announced on Wednesday that the shareholders of Argentina’s Impsat have voted to approve its proposed acquisition for $9.32 in cash for each share of Impsat common stock. The proposed acquisition represents a total equity value of around $95 million and includes Global Crossing’s assumption, refinancing and/or repayment of the Argentine telco’s debt, which was approximately $222 million as of end September 2006.

Dutch courier company TNT has bought delivery company Expresso Mercurio, Brazil’s market leader, for an undisclosed sum. This is the TNT’s third acquisition in a developing market in the past 12 months, following purchases in China and India, according to analysts at Rabo Securities. Last year, Expresso Mercurio had revenues worth around $247.5 million.

Consolidation of the banking sector in Central America continues with the announcement of the acquisition by Guatemala’s G&T Continental of rival local financial group Banex-Figsa for an undisclosed sum. According to local newspaper El Periódico, G&T Continental is paying around $150 million for the group which includes Banco de Exportación (Banex), Financiera Guatemalteca (Figsa), Panama-based Banex International Bank Corp, credit card issuer Banex-VISA, and brokerage firm Banex Valores.

Brazilian iron-ore producer Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) announced Friday it now owns 100% of the common shares of CVRD Inco, the newly formed entity resulting from the amalgamation of Canadian nickel miner Inco. Under the amalgamation, which was effective on January 4, holders of Inco common shares received, for each such share held, one Class A redeemable preferred share of CVRD Inco. Inco’s common shares were de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange at the close of trading Friday and will no longer be traded on any stock exchange. “CVRD Inco has applied to cease to be a reporting issuer under Canadian securities laws and has suspended its reporting obligations under United States securities laws”, the company added.