Chile’s Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Entel) is looking to sell up to UF5m ($237m) in 10 and 30-year bonds in the domestic market. The timing is for the second half of this year, says a banker on the deal. The telecom is raising funds for investments, working capital and debt repayments. It has hired IMTrust and Bice as leads.
Category: Chile
Posted inDaily Brief
Chile Continues Water Utility Selldown
Chile’s Corporacion de Fomento de la Produccion (Corfo) has begun investor presentations for the July 15 follow-on sale of shares in water utilities Essbio and Essval, which could raise around $1bn equivalent. Following its $979m sale last month of nearly all of its stake in water utility Aguas Andinas, the government entity is now looking to offload 24.4% of Esval and 38.4% of Essbio, as the Chilean government proceeds with an asset sale plan to help with earthquake recovery-related budgetary needs. The plan, according to a road show presentation, is to offer 10.2bn class A and C Essbio shares, which would raise about CLP264.3bn ($573m) based on Thursday’s closing prices. It also plans to sell 3.62bn Esval class A and C shares, which would raise about CLP361.9bn ($780m) at Thursday’s closing prices. However, each of the share classes are rather illiquid, with Essbio having a 5.4% free float and Esval less than 1%, making size estimations tricky. The auction and the price announcement are both expected July 15. Corfo is set to keep a 5.0% position in each company, both of which are controlled by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Banchile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and IM Trust are managing, the same trio that handled Aguas Andinas.
Posted inDaily Brief
BAML Beefs up Chile Operations
BAML is beefing up its Chile operations with the hires of Rodrigo Demaria as director and head of corporate banking Southern Cone and Cristian Aguirre as vice president. Demaria will be based in Santiago and will report to David Jana, country executive for the Southern Cone region, and to Carlos Ibanez, head of corporate banking for Spanish speaking LatAm. Aguirre, who is also based in Santiago, reports to Demaria. Demaria was most recently at BBVA as executive director, corporate and investment banking. Aguirre also joins from BBVA, where he was a senior relationship manager in international corporate banking based in New York and Chile.
Posted inDaily Brief
Chilean Developer Plots Bond Sale
Chilean homebuilder Paz Corp is planning to raise UF1.5m ($71m) in Chile’s domestic markets. Proceeds from the sale of the 10-year bonds will go to refinance debt and to increase participation in its subsidiaries. No information on the timing was given, and officials at the company could not be reached for comment. Local shop EuroAmerica has been hired to manage the transaction.
Posted inDaily Brief
Corpbanca Prices Follow-on
Corpbanca has auctioned off CLP135.2bn ($290m) in new shares in a follow-on Friday at CLP7.35 a share. The deal, led by Celfin and Corpbanca, is the first of three preferential offerings. The second round is set to conclude August 1.
Posted inMagazine
Let’s Try That Again
European funds are increasingly eyeing LatAm PE in an effort to gain exposure to the growth in middle class consumption.
But can they avoid the mistakes of the past?
Posted inDaily Brief
AquaChile Prepays Debt
AquaChile has prepaid $163m of $406m in outstanding debt and is looking to refinance the remaining $243m through a 7-year loan that comes with a 2-year grace period and initially pays 6-month Libor+120bp. The Chilean utility does not say which bank is providing the loan.
Posted inDaily Brief
CB Auctions Banco de Chile Options
Chile’s central bank has priced a CLP24.35bn ($51.5m) notional-value sale of share options in Banco de Chile, according to the Santiago Bolsa. The 392.8m options to buy shares at CLP62 through July 4 represent the central bank’s preferential rights from Banco de Chile’s $180m equity follow-on in March. The options priced at CLP3.10 each. The central bank is a minority shareholder in Banco de Chile going back to a government intervention during a 1980s financial crisis, and had decided not to exercise its rights in the March sale. BanChile and LarrainVial managed the recent sale of options. Banco de Chile shares closed at CLP66.75 Tuesday. The CLP62 price matches the price of the 1.4bn share sale in March.
Posted inDaily Brief
Saieh Buys 10% Stake in La Polar
Grupo Saieh has acquired a 10% stake in Chilean retailer La Polar. Grupo Saieh is owned by Alvaro Saieh, who also controls the SMU retail chain and 20% of the supermarket sector. Celfin advised Saieh on the investment, but did not say how much Saieh paid for the stake.
Posted inDaily Brief
Enap Close to Issuing Loan, Bond
Chile’s Enap could to issuing after sending out RFPs to raise funding in the loan and bond markets, says a banker familiar with the process. Earlier this month the state-owned oil and gas company was heard seeking $500m in the loan market via 3 and 5-year tenors, but the banker believes that the borrower could possibly try its luck with a 10-year USD bond and a 5-year local loan, where ultimately funding is cheaper. Indeed, European banks are considered top contenders for the mandate given their ability to provide Enap with lower cost financing, he added. The company was eyeing the loan market as early as last year, but opted instead to issue a US$500m 10-year bond which was priced in August at 99.593 with a 5.250% coupon to yield 5.300%, or UST plus 240bp, inside of the 250bp (+/-5bp) guidance. Demand for the paper reached a healthy US$2.5bn despite a downgrade that year. BAML, BBVA, BNP and Scotia managed the bond sale.