Mexico’s Corporacion Durango, the integrated paper and packaging company has again extended the deadline of its cash tender offer for any and all of its series B step up rate senior secured guaranteed notes due 2012. The new closing date is 1700 EST on August 17, from August 10 previously. As of last Friday, the firm had secured $370.5m in aggregate principal amount, or approximately 88.3%, of the outstanding notes. Merrill Lynch is dealer manager for the tender offer and consent solicitation. Global Bondholder Services Corporation is depositary and information agent.
Category: Regions
Posted inDaily Brief
Ontario Teacher’s Lends Lamosa $225m
Ontario Teacher’s Fund, whose private equity arm Teacher’s Private Capital manages $15.2bn in assets, has lent Lamosa, a Mexican retailer of home improvement products, $225m via second lien loan, according to bankers away from the deal. The margin is heard to be between 400bp and 450bp. The facility has a 7-year maturity, though the borrower must renew it at least two years ahead of the final date. Lamosa is also doing a $670m two-tranche 4.7-year average life loan via Scotiabank. The syndication is heard to be going well, with five MLAs, including BBVA, JPMorgan, Unicredit, and Comerica, and five arrangers, including Merrill Lynch and ABN AMRO. Proceeds of the financings are being use to acquire Porcenalite, a tilemaker.
Posted inDaily Brief
ICA Wins La Yesca, Mandates WestLB
Mexican construction firm ICA has won a mandate to develop the $800m-$1bn La Yesca hydroelectric project in Mexico and WestLB is sole arranger on the financing. The project, dubbed El Cajón II after a $755m hydroelectric project funded in 2004, also via WestLB, will develop a 220m high dam to generate 750MW of hydroelectric power in the Hostotipaquillo municipality of Jalisco state in Mexico. LatinFinance hears that up to three MLAs should be mandated in the next fortnight with funding slated for September. ICA is on a winning streak, having won with Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners a package of four toll roads in Mexico. It bid $4.1bn for the first transaction to be awarded by Fideicomiso de Apoyo al Rescate de Autopistas Concesionadas (FARAC), a trust fund owned by the Mexican Government. The 30-year concession is to build, operate, exploit, conserve, and maintain four tollroads, which have a total length of 548km. Santander is arranging the FARAC financing package, which is also expected to go to MLAs soon. Dexia and NordLB are heard in on the deal already.
Posted inDaily Brief
Santander Adds Project Finance Syndicate Head
Santander has moved Javier Riveiro, head of European project finance syndications, to New York, where he will head syndications for project finance in the Americas. The position is a new one, and reflects the bank’s bet its project finance business will continue to grow. He will report to Robert Silvershotz, head of Santander’s integrated syndicate group, which includes bonds, loans, project finance and ABS. Silvershotz was recently hired from ABN AMRO.
Posted inDaily Brief
Banco de Credito Prices $500m FRN
Banco de Credito del Peru has priced a dual tranche $500m MT100 issue amid market volatility. The bonds are split into a $350m series A and a $150m series B. The series A have a 10-year final, 7.4 year average life, and pay Libor plus 28bp. The series B have a 7-year final maturity, 5.2-year average life and pay Libor plus 25bp. Ambac wrapped the issue to give it a AAA rating. S&P assigned an underlying rating of A minus to BCP and Moody’s gave it a Baa3 rating. Standard Chartered was sole bookrunner and lead manager with Calyon and BMO as co-managers. The deal, which closed yesterday, was heard to be 40% oversubscribed, though market volatility likely added a premium of a few bp to the margin, says a person close to the deal.
Posted inDaily Brief
Credito Inmobilario Plans MXP750m Tap
Mexico’s Credito Inmobilario is planning a MXP750m issue of certificados bursatiles with a tenor of up to six years from a MXP6bn program. The deal has a partial guarantee from FMO for up to 22.3% of the issue. Fitch rates it single A locally.
Posted inDaily Brief
Su Casita Registers Program
Mexican Sofol Su Casita has registered a MXP4bn certificados bursatiles program. Leads on the first deal will likely be IXE and Santander. Su Casita is a frequent issuer in the Mexican local market.
Posted inDaily Brief
High Yield Dominates LatAm DCM
High yield bond issuance out of LatAm and the Caribbean increased by 47% in the first seven months of 2007 to $24.2bn, compared to $16.5bn for the first seven months of 2006, according to Dealogic. By contrast, investment grade issuance fell by 16% to $10.2bn from $12.1bn for the same period last year. Corporate bond issuance jumped 20% in that period and accounts for two thirds of the overall volume, which posted a 14% year on year increase to $51.1bn raised through 311 deals compared to $44.7bn and 324 deals in the first seven months of 2006. The fastest growing sector in the region is oil and gas, Dealogic finds. The sector is the second most active, with an 11% increase in issuance this year compared to 2007, accounting for 19% of all bonds issued.
Posted inDaily Brief
Colombia Likely to Issue Abroad
Colombia will have to tap the international bond market this year to make up for a new hole in its fiscal account. A late presidential decision to suspend the partial sale of ISA and a second round of equity issuance by Isagen, two key state-owned power companies specializing in distribution and generation respectively, has resulted in an estimated $3bn dollar gap in the 2008 budget. “If we don’t sell ISA, we’ll have to raise the difference in the international bond market and through the multilaterals,” Julio Torres, head of public credit, told LatinFinance in mid-July. On July 30, the 2008 budget was published, and along with it a line saying that since ISA and Isagen offerings were no longer being considered, the difference in state funds is going to be made up by taking out “foreign debt.” It is still unclear how much of the $3bn would be issued in the bond market.
Posted inDaily Brief
Colombian Liquor Privatizations on Ice
The privatization of the state-owned liquor companies in the Colombian states of Caldas, Antioquia, Cundinamarca and Valle won’t happen this year, and may not happen at all, according to local bankers. While some governors like Emilio Echeverri, of Caldas, who recently said he’d seek out private partners to invest and help run companies like Industria Licorera de Caldas (ILC), a number of the candidates running for governor say they oppose the sales, claiming this would jeopardize the states’ economies. The real concern for some candidates, according to a banker in Bogotá, is that the governors would lose control over a valuable asset that permits them to meet campaign promises for job creation. Either way, global suitors like SABMiller, which has publicly expressed interest in ILC, may have to wait several months to return to the negotiating table.