Category: Mexico

Private equity firm Advent International is close to landing its buyout of Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI (Aerodom). The global firm, whose Mexico team is running the deal, is raising $350m in the syndicated loan market to help pay for the asset, which operates 6 Dominican airports on concession from the government. The facility is broken into 2 tranches: a $125m 7-year amortizer at 450bp over Libor and a 7-year bullet with cash sweep that pays 450bp out of the box. Pricing is on a leverage grid and includes step ups taking the margin as high as 900bp over Libor, according to people with knowledge of the terms. Leverage out of the box is heard at 3.5x. ING and Scotia are leading, and EDC has signed on as a senior MLA. The deal will likely be funded ahead of syndication, scheduled to close in mid-September. Around 9-10 banks are expected to participate, including Dominican institutions, say bankers away from the deal.

Mexico’s government opened bidding yesterday for the contract to build the $4bn+ port at Punta Colonet in Baja California. The government says the massive project should be ready to start construction next year for completion in 2012. Some analysts say it could be worth as much as $7bn. The West Coast facility – Latin America’s first greenfield port – is the biggest in Felipe Calderon’s infrastructure plan and should divert container traffic away from the congested US ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, through a planned rail connection to the US. Official bidding documents are set to be made available Tuesday, according to Mexican press reports citing transport secretary Luis Tellez. The world’s leading infrastructure names are expected to participate. Carlos Slim’s Ideal has formed a consortium with Grupo Ferromex and cargo terminal operator MTC Holdings. Other expected names include ICA, Hutchison Port Holdings, SSA Marine and DP World, as well as rail groups Union Pacific and BNSF. Financing the build will be a great challenge for the winner, as there is no real precedent, the complexities of integrating large port and rail operations are not well understood, and the Panama Canal expansion and other maritime projects in the region compete for investor attention.

Shareholders of Mexican microfinancier Banco Compartamos shareholders have approved the creation of a MXP700m share buyback fund. The bank plans to use retained earnings to fund the repurchase of shares over an unlimited time period.

Cemex plans to sell up to MXP2bn in 2010 floating-rate notes in the Mexican market, it said in a filing. The AA+ transaction through HSBC is expected in September, and proceeds will repay short-term debt. The sale would be the tenth from a MXP30bn shelf, and follow an April MXP1bn 2010 bond priced at TIIE plus 36bp via ING and Santander.

Internet trading site MercadoLibre has agreed to purchase the operations of rival DeRemate in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico for $40m. Under the terms of the agreement, MercadoLibre will acquire DeRemate for $22m in cash and issue a promissory note to DeRemate for the remaining $18m, MercadoLibre says. “The combination of marketplaces would mean greater product offerings, increased liquidity and additional buyers and sellers on our websites,” the company says.

S&P has upgraded Mexican cable TV operator Cablemas to BB (stable) from BB minus after conversion by Grupo Televisa of long-term convertible notes into 99.99% of the equity of Alvafig. The latter holds 49% of Cablemas’ voting equity. Televisa has further purchased an additional $100m in long-term notes issued by Alvafig, after which it holds a 49% voting equity stake in Cablemas and 54.6% of Cablemas’ capital stock, says S&P. It adds that Cablemas is a strategic asset for Televisa and will expand its cable services coverage.

Molymet is preparing to sell MXP1.5bn in 2018 bonds September 2, marking what is understood to be the first sale of bonds in Mexico by a Chilean company. The metal processor plans to issue MXP1bn in peso-denominated fixed-rate notes and MXP490m in notes denominated in the UDI inflation-linked unit. Proceeds will repay a two export loans due September 10 – a $147m loan from Banco de Chile that pays 3.36% and a $46m loan from Scotia at 3.23%. The local bond issue is rated AA by S&P and AA+ by Fitch, both on a national scale. Banamex is leading the offer. Molymet operates a Molybdenum processing facility in Cumpas, Sonora.