Category: M&A

A merger between America Latina Logistica (ALL) and Rumo Logistica is a possibility under discussion, the companies said this week. The two Brazilian transport firms abandoned a deal last year which would have seen Rumo’s parent Cosan buy 5.7% of ALL. Cosan said Monday that Rumo was in “preliminary talks” with ALL over a possible “combination of their activities”, but that no proposals had been formalized.

Argentine holding company Corporacion America agreed Monday to buy EBX’s 33.02% stake in Brazilian firm SIX Semiconductors. The acquisition price was not disclosed. SIX is owned by EBX through SIX Soluções Inteligentes, as well as Brazilian development bank BNDES, the Minas Gerais development bank BDMG, IBM, Matec Investimentos, and Tecnologia Infinita WS-Intecs. The firm is building an industrial and medical chip production plant in Brazil, which is set to be the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

Shareholders in Chilean drugmaker CFR Pharmaceuticals agreed on Friday to increase the firm’s bid for South African firm Adcock Ingram. CFR had said in December it would lift its bid for Adcock by 1.6%, to ZAR12.8bn ($1.23bn), by increasing the share price to ZAR74.5. Adcock Ingram’s shares closed at ZAR70.25 on Friday.

French insurer CNP Assurances has agreed to buy Brazilian insurer Tempo Dental for BRL133.6m ($55.9m), it said on Wednesday. CNP plans to buy the dental insurer through its Brazilian subsidiary, Caixa Seguros, which also bought Brazilian personal insurer Previsul last year for BRL70m. Tempo Participacoes is the seller. The deal is the latest vote of confidence in Brazil’s insurance market, which was underscored by the $5.74bn-equivalent IPO of BB Seguridade last April. Also last year, Bradesco Saude took control of dental benefits provider Odontoprev and Itau Unibanco agreed to buy Banco BMG’s insurance business.

Braskem said the price it offered in a tender for the free-float of an Argentine firm was “fair”, and that it was “surprised” by the regulator’s ruling against the acquisition. The Brazilian petrochemical producer agreed in December to buy 70.59% of Solvay Indupa, the Argentine-Brazilian unit of Belgium’s Solvay, directly from the controllers. At the same time, Braskem launched a tender on the Buenos Aires stock exchange for the rest of the plastics maker. Argentina’s stock market regulator, the CNV, ruled against the transaction on Friday. Braskem countered on Monday by saying the price it was offering in the tender — ARS1.35 ($0.20) per share — followed two independent valuations and legal opinions, and was a 153% premium to what Braskem agreed to pay the controlling shareholder. “For these reasons, Braskem believes that the price offered is fair and was surprised by the decision of the CNV to reject the price of its [public tender offer] in light of the new Capital Markets Law of Argentina, and is in talks with CNV to understand the specific objections underlying its decision and to define the next steps,” the firm said in an emailed statement.

Hungarian pharmaceutical firm Gedeon Richter is growing its footprint in Latin America with two acquisitions. The firm agreed to buy a 51% stake in Brazilian importer and distributor Next Pharma last month. It also agreed to buy 70% of Mexican firm DNA Pharmaceuticals, and to increase that to 100% over the next three years. The acquisitions are part of a diversification play into a region with one of the world’s fastest growing pharmaceutical markets, the company’s managing director said. The sale prices were not disclosed.

BBVA plans to open 60 offices in Colombia this year, part of a $2.5bn South American investment push, LatinFinance understands. The bank, which has recently sold its pension businesses in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Peru, is on a drive to boost its banking infrastructure in South America. It has earmarked $1bn to upgrade technology and $1.5bn to improve its physical infrastructure in the region, including increasing branches by 18% and doubling its online banking customers, under a 2013-2016 plan unveiled by chief operating officer Angel Cano in September. BBVA reported gross revenues in Spain of EUR4.7bn ($6.4bn) and in South America of EUR4bn over the first 9 months of 2013.

In another vote of confidence in Mexico’s dairy market, Swiss milk processor Emmi has bought half of Mexideli 2000 Holding, a cheese and specialty food importer. Mexideli generated sales of around $50m and had recorded “double-digit growth” in recent years, according to Emmi. A spokesperson at the buyer declined to disclose the sale price or the seller for the deal that was closed on December 31. The transaction follows a well-bid IPO for Mexican dairy and food producer Grupo Lala in October. The MXN14.04bn ($1.08bn) sale was the year’s largest IPO in Mexico.

Two Brazilian investors have launched a bid for control of Diagnosticos da America (DASA), offering to buy at least 26.41% plus one of the outstanding stock at BRL15 ($6.3) per share. Edson de Godoy Bueno and Dulce Pugliese de Godoy Bueno own 23.59% of the Brazilian medical service provider and have opened a voluntary tender offer for the remainder of the company through investment vehicle Cromossomo Participacoes. The investor will buy as many as all 238.3m shares the pair does not own, with the deal subject to a minimum of 82.4m shares. The price is a 12.44% premium to the closing price on December 20, and a 22.9% premium to the 90-day volume weighted average price before that. The shares closed at BRL14.36 on Thursday. Shareholders have until January 21 to tender their stock. BTG Pactual is managing the deal. DASA was last in the capital markets in October, when it sold a BRL450m 2018 debenture. DASA reported gross revenues of BRL716.7m in the third quarter.

Peruvian logistics firm Ransa, part of Grupo Romero, bought Colombian cold food transporter Frigorificos Colombianos (Colfrigos) in its first expansion into the country. Ransa paid private equity firm Altra Investments $24.7m for the 93.1% stake in the firm, which has an enterprise value of $40.8m. Scotiabank was sole advisor to Ransa on the acquisition, which was closed in December.