IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement with Banco Amigo, a newly established microfinance bank in Monterrey, Mexico. IFC will investment MXN77m ($7.1m), representing a stake of up to 18%, to help finance the bank’s expansion of products and services to low-income entrepreneurs and women-owned small businesses.
Category: Regions
Posted inDaily Brief
Colombia Rate Move Keeps Economists Guessing
Economists’ opinions are split over whether Colombia’s Central Bank will or will not raise interest rates on Friday. The benchmark interest rate has been hiked six times this year to its current high of 9%. Lower-than-expected June inflation has persuaded some economists that the Bank will pause this month and hold at 9%, while others are clear the Bank will carry on tightening the rate to 9.25% to combat inflationary pressures.
Posted inDaily Brief
Barclays Gets Chinese Help for ABN Buy
Barclays has upped the ante on its bid to take over ABN AMRO, following investment in the UK bank of EUR13.4bn from the China Development Bank. Besides raising the bid for ABN to EUR67.5bn, it also boosts the share price of the UK bank, sweetening the overall deal for the Dutch target. It may not be enough to head off an offer by a consortium including Santander, which threatens to shake up Brazilian banking. But it keeps the ball in play and revives the possibility of a bidding war for ABN’s Brazil assets. Itaú has already indicated that it may be interested, while Bradesco is rumored to want the operations too. Citi and HSBC are also seen as potential buyers.
Posted inDaily Brief
GraceKennedy Buys in T&T
GraceKennedy, the Jamaica-based group, through its subsidiary, First Global Holdings, has acquired a 90% holding in ONE1 Financial, based in Trinidad & Tobago. The newly acquired company will become part of the First Global group, which currently includes First Global Bank and First Global Financial Services. ONE1 Financial specializes in structured finance, securities trading, capital raising and financial advisory services. In Jamaica, First Global Group provides a full range of banking and investment services including equity trading, pension fund management, asset and portfolio management, and corporate finance and advisory services. “Trinidad & Tobago is the fastest growing economy in the English speaking Caribbean therefore it is very important that GraceKennedy continues to participate in its future development,” says Don Wehby ceo of GraceKennedy Investments.
Posted inDaily Brief
S&P Revises Peru LT Outlook
Peru’s strengthening credit profile has prompted ratings agency Standard & Poor’s to improve its BB+ long-term foreign and BBB- long-term local currency sovereign credit ratings on the Republic to positive from stable. At the same time, S&P affirmed its B short-term foreign and A-3 short-term local currency sovereign credit ratings on Peru. “Strong economic growth prospects from rising investment” and “adept debt management” were cited as two main factors, behind the ratings action. The first factor will help to make Peru “less vulnerable to both terms-of-trade shocks and political instability”, while the second is “reducing the vulnerability of the government’s debt trajectory to adverse foreign exchange movements”, according to S&P’s Buenos Aires-based credit analyst Sebastian Briozzo. Commenting on the action, Goldman Sachs analyst, said the firm believed the outlook change was deserved and that “Peru is in a good position to obtain the investment grade rating over the next 12 to 18 months (late 2008 or 2009). Fitch also rates Peru at BB+ with a stable outlook, just one rating action away from investment grade, while Moody’s is one notch below at Ba2 with a stable outlook.
Posted inDaily Brief
Jamaica’s NCB Places DPRs
National Commercial Bank of Jamaica raised $50m in securities backed by diversified payments rights Friday by placing the lot into the hands of investors in a privately arranged transaction. The notes, part of a program started last year with a $100m issuance, is backed by electronic transactions ranging from FDI flows to remittances to export payments. Pricing information was not revealed. Credit Suisse led the BBB minus (Fitch) deal.
Posted inDaily Brief
India’s Jindal Buys into Bolivia
Bolivia got a shot in the arm over the weekend by signing a $2.1bn 40-year mining deal with India’s Jindal Power & Steel, according to press reports. The agreement for the El Mutun iron ore deposit apparently comes after more than a year of negotiations and is thought to be one of the biggest single investments in Bolivia’s history. Grupo Financiero Bisa is issuing local guarantees and insurance policies as part of the deal. “This a very important sign to the world, because it shows that it is possible to invest in Bolivia for long terms,” says a banker at Bisa.
Posted inDaily Brief
Grupo TMM Securitizes Vessels Receivables
Mexican logistics and transportation company Grupo TMM, has securitized the future revenues of its vessels with the issuance of 20-year trust certificates (certificados bursatiles). This first tranche, part of a larger MXN9bn program, is worth MXN3bn ($280m) and has a rate of 225bp over the interbank TIIE rate.
Posted inDaily Brief
Coke FEMSA Says Jugos Buy To Proceed
Coca-Cola FEMSA and The Coca-Cola Company said Wednesday that they would be proceeding with the $470m purchase of Mexico’s Jugos del Valle following a successful appeal to the Comisión Federal de Competencia (CFC). “We expect to receive the final notification in the following weeks,” Coca-Cola FEMSA says in a statement to the Bolsa. The deal was for $380m in cash and $90m debt and advised by Rothschild, says Dealogic.
Posted inDaily Brief
Metrofinanciera Brings Construction Loan ABS
Mexican Sofol Metrofinanciera is planning a MXP2.15bn cross-border construction loan securitization through Credit Suisse, with Banco Invex as trustee. The final maturity is 2014 and the notes have a subordination level equal to 12.5% provided by the class B notes and an initial overcollateralization of 5.0% of the collateral balance, says Fitch. It adds that the average excess spread of the portfolio’s credit rights must be at least 200bp, and sees strength in Metrofinanciera as an originator and servicer. Moody’s rates the notes Baa1 and Fitch gives it a preliminary BBB.