Category: M&A

HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, has agreed to pay $1.77 billion for Grupo Banistmo, 2.89 times the book value of the Panamanian bank as of the end of March. The acquisition would be the largest in the region and will allow the UK bank to consolidate its position in Central America. The purchase will be carried out via a public share offering on the Panama Securities Exchange. Banistmo, Central America’s largest financial institution, has operations in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia and El Salvador.

One of Chile’s anti-trust regulators, the National Economic Prosecutor (FNE) has asked the Court of Fair Competition to temporarily suspend recent acquisitions by local supermarket chains Cencosud and D&S. The regulator is worried about the concentration within the sector and possible lack of competition. Last week Cencosud said it was to spend $60 million to buy local supermarket chain Supermercados Economax.

The central bank of Guatemala, Banguat, has approved the merger of the country’s largest bank – Banco Industrial – with Banco de Occidente, the sixth largest in terms of assets. Approval had already been given by Guatemala’s bank regulator, SIB. Banco Industrial bought 72% of Banco de Occidente in March for $136 million, taking its share of domestic banking assets to 26% of the total market.

US technology company Sykes has bought Argentine call center operator Apex for $27.4 million. The acquisition will be funded 80% by cash and 20% by stock. Apex is headquartered in the city of Córdoba and has two other call centers in Argentina, serving clients in Argentina, Mexico and the US. Sykes plans to manage its Spanish business from its new base in Argentina.

Mexico’s competition commission rejected the merger of two railroads owned by Grupo Mexico, the country’s largest copper producer. Kansas City Southern Industries, which owns the third of the country’s main railroad networks, had complained the merger would hurt competition. Grupo Mexico bought Ferrosur, which operates mainly in the south, from magnate Carlos Slim, to merge it with operations in northern Mexico. The company said it will examine its options now.

Tenaris, the world’s largest steel tube producer, controlled by Argentina’s Techint, is to buy North American rival Maverick Tube for $2.4 billion. The acquisition will allow Tenaris to expand into the North American market. The move by Techint’s Luxembourg-based unit pushed up the company’s share price and saw an improvement in Argentina’s Merval Tuesday – Technit has a 27.7% weighting in the index.

Electricity provider Enel of Italy has spent $195 million to buy 11 small hydroelectric centers (PCH) in Brazil. Together, they have a combined capacity of 98MW. The acquisition still needs approval from Brazil’s electricity regulator, Aneel.

Colombian banks Banco de Occidente and Banco Unión will carry out a share swap on June 23 to finalize the merger of the two entities. Last month the Colombian financial sector regulator approved Banco de Occidente’s acquisition of the remaining 44% of Banco Unión it did not already own via a public offering. Banco de Occidente, part of Grupo Aval, is Colombia’s fifth-largest financial institution.

Colombian industry and trade regulator (SIC) has approved the acquisition of Cementos Andino and Concrecem by Cementos Argos, part of local conglomerate GEA, which bought the assets of its rival last November for $192 million. The acquisition gives Argos control of 60% of the domestic production capacity of cement and concrete – around 9 million tonnes of cement and 1.5 million cubic meters of concrete a year.

Advent International, the global private equity firm, announced that it has led the leveraged acquisition of Milano, Mexico’s largest discount clothing retailer, for $200 million. The landmark buyout is Mexico’s first private-equity-backed transaction in the middle market to use significant leverage based mainly on cash flow.