Category: M&A

Mexican financial group Banorte is to buy 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 last year. In January, Banorte announced it was to buy 70% of Texas-based Inter National Bank for $259 million.

Mexican cement producer Grupo Cementos Chihuahua (GCC) has bought US firm Mid-Continent Concrete for $271 million. The acquisition of the Oklahoma-based company will be financed by debt. In September last year GCC bought a 46.57% stake in Bolivian company Sociedad Boliviana de Cementos (SOBOCE) in a deal worth $58.2 million.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Stephen Cunningham as a managing director and head of corporate finance and M&A for Latin America. Cunnigham, who will be based in New York, has joined from Morgan Stanley where he was head of investment banking for Latin America. During his 10 years there he was involved in several notable deals, such as the privatization of Telebras, restructuring of Telecom Argentina, as well as working on bond offerings for both sovereign and corporate issuers.

Canada’s Scotiabank has agreed to buy the retail operations of Citibank in Dominican Republic for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will increase Scotiabank’s share of the local consumer credit market. Canada’s third-largest bank has been active in the Latin American market recently as it pursues its strategy of expansion. In March it bought control of Peruvian bank Sudamericano for $62.4 million. It plans to merge Sudamericano with Peru’s third-largest bank, Banco Wiese Sudameris, which it acquired for $265 million last year.

Troubled Brazilian airline carrier Varig is set to decide whether to accept an improved acquisition offer of $400 million by its former cargo subsidiary VarigLog. The company, now owned by Volo Brasil, made an offer earlier this month for $350 million which was rejected by Varig’s creditors and workers’ unions. Varig, which has debts of around $3.3 billion, has been under bankruptcy protection since last June and has now run out of operating cash. It faces closure should the government fail to intervene with a rescue plan.

Colombia’s largest TV channel, Caracol Televisión, has bought a 25% stake in WGen-TV of Southern Florida for $12 million. The acquisition gives Caracol control of three Spanish-speaking TV channels in the region, broadcasting mainly in the Miami area.

Mergers and acquisitions in Argentina totaled $1.2 billion in the first quarter of the year, according to a KPMG study. The biggest deal was Apache’s purchase of Pioneer Argentina for S$675 million followed by HSBC’s US$155 million acquisition of local bank BNL.

Grupo Mexico SA, the country’s largest copper producer, could spend as much as $6 billion on new acquisitions as high world copper prices fill its treasury, according to Chief Financial Officer Eduardo Gonzalez. The company plans to use a mix of new debt, cash and shares to finance any purchase. The copper producer defaulted on $450 million in debt in 2001 because of low world prices and currently has an outstanding debt of $1.72 billion. Gonzalez, however, stressed the company will be very careful with its purchase that could be for as little as $500 million.

Colombian Cementos Argos, Latin America’s fifth-largest cement producer, has agreed a third acquisition in the US market. Argos has agreed to buy Ready Mixed Concrete Company (RMCC) from US private equity firm Audax Group for an enterprise value of $435 million. The deal represents the largest investment into the US by a private Colombian company. Last year Argos bought two US companies – in Texas and Arkansas. RMCC is the leading provider of ready-mixed concrete in North Carolina, South Carolina, and southern Virginia, producing approximately three million cubic yards of concrete annually. It was acquired by Audax in 2004. Cementos Argos is owned by Colombia’s largest conglomerate, GEA. Argos currently supplies 9% of all cement imported into the US. Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking acted as exclusive financial advisor to Audax and RMCC.