Banco de Credito del Peru is not engaged in talks to sell itself to another bank, Carlos Munoz, COO tells LatinFinance. “There’s a lot circling around out there, but nothing going on,” says Munoz, adding the bank has no interest in selling itself. Rumors have circled for months that a large foreign entity has been courting BCP. Santander in particular has been identified as the number one suitor, say executives away from the bank. But BCP is held by Credicorp, which is controlled by the Romero family. Without their approval, the bank cannot be sold, say bankers familiar with the institution.
Category: Regions
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Quasi-Sovereign Bond
City Financing Just before credit markets dried up in July 2007, the District of Bogotá priced an innovative and tightly priced $300 million TES-denominated 144A offering due 2028. What the […]
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Peru Taps LNG Potential
Peru’s most ambitious private project to date is either a GDP booster or a waste of domestic resources. The impact on the region’s gas supply could be substantial.
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Sovereign Bond
Keeping it Local Last year saw several significant and innovative transactions from sovereign issuers and many examples of creative liability management. But Peru’s $1.5 billion sol-denominated 2037 issue pushed the […]
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Project Finance Deal Financing Innovation
A New Mexican Market In what the Mexican government hopes will be the start of a new era in infrastructure investment, the first concession from Mexico’s Fideicomiso de Apoyo para […]
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Sovereign issuer
UMS Goes Strategic Long considered the region’s most sophisticated issuer, Mexico pushed the envelope in 2007 with several transactions that showcase its continued leadership of the debt markets. The sovereign […]
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Argos to Sell Power Plant
Colombia’s Cementos Argos and its holding company Inversiones Argos have agreed to sell the Merilectrica power plant to investment holding company Colinversiones for $112m, according to a filing to the securities regulator. The Medellin-based plant is gas-fired and has a capacity of 169MW megawatts.
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HSBC Preps DF Debt Securitization
HSBC plans to issue as soon as Thursday MXP7bn in debt backed by payments from a loan made by Dexia to the Mexico City government. The 40-year notes match the tenor of the loan package and pay TIIE plus 53bp, with a 25-year grace period for the repayment of principal. The deal is rated Aaa/AAA on a local scale, due to the fact that Mexico’s federal government guarantees DF’s debt payments. Proceeds will be used by HSBC to fund the purchase from Dexia of the rights to the loan contract, signed in August 2007, as well as the rights to receive payment on debt service.
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Argos Plans $400m in Bonds
Colombia’s Cementos Argos plans to sell up to $400m worth of bonds in the US market in 2008. It will use proceeds to finance construction of a new $300m cement plant in Cartagena and reduce outstanding debt costs. It plans to select banks in the next two months. However, if market volatility continues, it will drop the bond plan and seek as much as $150m in 18-month debt from CAF and the China Development Bank, and borrow $250m directly from the banks chosen to do the bond sale.
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Investors Pile in to Mexican FX, Exit Rates
Investors increased their exposure to the Mexican peso in December, according to a JPMorgan investor survey, which recently polled 157 accounts representing $419bn under management. The report indicates that overweight positions increased by 40% during the period, which marks the largest jump in positions since May 2007. The move, concurrent with a big drop in equities, was largely driven by locals. Overall, JPM kept debt market technicals at neutral and estimates that there were $2 billion of net inflows into EM debt since the beginning of 2008. At the country level, it downgraded technicals to negative from neutral in Peru. Meanwhile, buysiders scaled back on Mexican real rates, while ramping up their exposure in nominal rates. “Locals reduced their exposure the most with a minus 5.7 point decline to a 5.8 underweight,” notes JPM, referring to its system of evaluating relative portfolio positions. “[Locals] had previously played more on the defensive side in December by increasing their real rates positions,” says the report, adding that foreigners did not change their position very much during the period.