Category: Chile

Chile’s ENAP is pushing the envelope with a $150 million syndication through Calyon. A 17.5bp margin is heard on a seven-year final (5.75 average) deal, stepping up. It is launching this week in New York.

Chilean utility company Sanitaria Essbio placed $174.3 million worth of local inflation-adjusted bonds in the market Wednesday, opting against issuing a 10-year bond as well. The bond, which carries a maximum maturity of 23 years, has an internal rate of return of 3.68%. The money raised will be used to refinance short-term bank debt and complete investment financing over the next few years. BBVA and Santander Investment arranged the issue. Sanitaria Essbio, controlled by investment fund Southern Cross, is Chile’s second-largest waste water company.

Chilean highway operator Sociedad Concesionaria Autopista del Bosque is to sell up to UF1.5 million ($52.6 million) of two series B notes this Thursday, November 16. The inflation-adjusted bonds will yield a fixed annual interest rate of 3.4%. The bonds mature September 2024 and are redeemable from March 15, 2012. ABM AMRO and Celfin Capital are arranging the transaction. Autopista del Bosque was recently bought by Spanish highway operator Cintra from French road constructor Vinci for $11 million. Cintra owns several others highway operators in Chile and several are planning to take advantage of the current low-yield corporate bond environment to refinance debt by issuing inflation-adjusted bonds in the local market. One of these is Sociedad Concesionaria Autopista del Maipo, which is expected to issue up to UF5 million ($175.3 million) of the paper in the near future.

Marco Comparini Fontecilla has taken over at the head of Chilean investment bank Banco Penta. He replaces Eduardo Kirberg Benavides who steps down as managing director. Comparini was formerly corporate manager at the holding company Empresas Penta and, until last year, was head of investment at AFP Cuprum, part of the Penta group. Meanwhile, Kirberg – who had been chief executive at the Bank since it was set up in 2004 – replaces Alfredo Alcaíno de Esteve as a board director, while Alcaíno remains as secretary to the board.

Chile’s trade surplus fell in October as imports hit a record high driven by domestic demand. The surplus narrowed to $1.73 billion as a result of record imports of $3.26 billion. Meanwhile, exports weakened slightly, down to $5.0 billion from $5.2 billion in September. October’s trade surplus compares with $597 million for the same month last year, up almost 200%. Exports for the month compared with October 2005 were up 44%, reflecting the strength of global copper prices, and imports were up 13.5% versus October last year.

Consumer prices in Chile fell 0.3% in October, driven by a 1.4% fall in transport costs and a 0.7% reduction in housing costs. Inflation for the year through October rose to 2.6% while annual inflation fell to 2.1%. Core inflation in October – which strips out the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables and fuel – was 0.1%. Core inflation for the period January to October was 2.5% and for the 12 months through October was 3.1%.

Chile’s industrial production fell 4.4% in September, year on year, and sales contracted by 1.5, compared with the same month last year, according to Chilean federation of industry, Sofofa. The decline was the largest since March 2002. Meanwhile, industrial output for the nine months through September rose to 2.3% in September, and industrial sales were up 3.4%. Sofofa estimates industrial output will reach 3% this year.

Highways operator Cintra Chile has paid $11 million to acquire 100% of the capital of Sociedad Concesionaria Autopista del Bosque, which owns the Chillán-Collipulli section of the Panamerican Highway in the country. Cintra Chile, a subsidiary of Spanish firm Cintra, in turn part of Ferrovial, bought the company from French road constructor Vinci. Cintra already owns four sections of the Highway in Chile.

Chile’s fiscal surplus for the first nine months of the year reached 6.5% of GDP, driven up by the record international copper prices that have earned the country windfall revenues from the export of its main commodity. The figure for the first three quarters of the year compares with a surplus of 3.7% of GDP for the same period last year. During the third quarter, the fiscal surplus reached 2.4% of GDP; the government is forecasting a record surplus amounting to 7.6% of GDP for the whole of the year.

BCI Securitizadora, a unit of Chile’s fourth-largest bank, placed $25 million worth of financial securitization Thursday. The notes, rated AA by ratings agency Feller, have a maturity of 5.25 years and will yield 6.5% annually. At the start of October, the company placed $35.3 million-worth of securitized notes in the local market at a nominal annual rate of 6.36%.