Whirlpool, the world’s largest manufacturer of white goods, announced Tuesday that it is planning to expand production in Mexico as part of a larger, reorganization of global production. The plan comprises increasing output of side-by-side refrigeration products at its Ramos Arizpe refrigeration manufacturing facility from next year. Once that expansion is complete, around 700 employees north of the border in Arkansas will be made redundant in the first half of 2008 as additional models currently manufactured in the US will move to the Mexican plant. The lay-offs follow the voluntary redundancies at the Arkansas plant of more than 900 employees after the production of other models was transferred to Ramos Arizpe.
Category: Regions
Posted inDaily Brief
HSBC Gets Peru Nod
Peru’s banking superintendency has given the nod to UK and Hong Kong-based financial giant HSBC to set up operations in the local market. The Bank will operate under the name HSBC Bank Peru and is due to start operations on October 9. HSBC applied in March to the superintendency as part of a strategy to expand in the region. The Bank, the third-largest in the world, also heard from Colombia’s financial regulator this week that it could open a representative office in that country. HSBC already operates in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Earlier this year it agreed to buy the assets of Lloyds TSB in Paraguay for $15 million.
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Comcel Offers $42 Million Local Notes
Comcel, the Colombian unit of Mexican mobile phone operator América Móvil, offered $42 million worth of peso-denominated paper to the local market yesterday, Wednesday. The company said it would pay a maximum coupon of 7.8% on the 45-day commercial notes. The proceeds of the sale will be used as working capital, said Comcel. The transaction was arranged by the Colombian unit of BBVA. Last year, Comcel issued local-currency debt worth around $200 million to protect against fluctuations in the US dollar against the Colombian currency.
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Colombia’s Caribbean Airports Come To The Block
Colombia’s government says it will finally auction off, later this month, the concession to run two airports on Colombia’s Caribbean islands of San Andrés and Providencia. The sale was postponed from August after Aerocivil – Colombia’s civil aviation authority – extended the bidding process to allow participating companies, some of which were also bidding for Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport, more time to prepare documentation. Six groups of companies have bought the bidding documents: Corporación América, Estudios Técnicos Universal, Odinsa, Ramón Pereira Visbal, Stratis and Valores y Construcciones. The concession contract is set to be for 20 years and foresees investment of around $19 million in the first few years.
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Peru September Inflation 0.03%
Peru recorded inflation of 0.03% in September, lower than the 0.14% seen in August – according to the national institute of statistics (INEI). Inflation for the nine months through September was 1.35% and for the 12 months through September rose to 1.99%. The slowdown in prices was led by a drop in fuel prices cutting transport costs. Telephone tariffs also dropped.
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Keeping IMSA In The Family
The Canales Clariond family hs increased its shareholding in Grupo IMSA – Mexico’s largest steelmaker – by buying up the 43% equity stake held by other family members, the Clariond Reyes Retana family. The deal, worth just over $1 billion, leaves the Canales Clariond with an 86% share of IMSA. The Canales family bought the shares via its Tarida company. The two families have jointly controlled IMSA since it was founded 70 years ago. The acquisition should put an end to rumors that a share of IMSA was to be sold to foreign buyers. IMSA has operations in Mexico, Central America and the United States.
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Su Casita Breaks New Ground
Mexican mortgage lender Hipotecaria Su Casita has broken new ground yet again to become the first Sofol – non-bank finance institution – to issue high-yield securities. Su Casita placed $150 million of the 10-year debt, with a 8.5% coupon. The issuance was several times oversubscribed. Credit Suisse acted as underwriter; law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented the Mexican lender in structuring and closing the transaction.
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Ecuador Shelves Debt Buyback Plans
Ecuador has shelved its debt buyback plans in the face of falling bond prices. The government had until the end of September to decide whether to take up a November 15 option to buy back its Global 2012 bonds, totaling $510 million, which carry a yield of 12%. However, the drop in international oil prices and the uncertain political situation ahead of Ecuador’s October 15 elections have pushed the price of the country’s external bonds to below the nominal value of the debt. International investors have become increasingly nervous following comments from several presidential candidates about possible external debt restructuring or even default.
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Guatemala Swaps Debt For Nature
Guatemala has signed an agreement with the US to swap $24 million of debt owed for conservation of specially designated regions within the country, known as a debt-for-nature swap. The agreement seeks to conserve Guatemala’s high-altitude cloud forests, rain forests, and coastal mangrove swamps. Guatemala is one of only six countries eligible under the 1998 Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) to benefit from debt relief of certain official debt owed to the US. In June, Paraguay – another of the six eligible countries – swapped $6.5 million of debt owed to the US under the same scheme.
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Bolivia Trade Surplus Widens
Bolivia’s trade surplus for the first eight months of the year widened to $926 million, up 157% year on year, according to the national institute of statistics (INE). The increase in the trade surplus was driven by a rise in the value of exports, up 50% to $2.7 billion from $1.8 billion for the same period last year. The rise in export value comes from Bolivia’s mining and hydrocarbon sales, which benefited from higher global prices, according to analysts. Meanwhile, imports for the months January through August rose only 23% to $1.8 billion from $1.5 billion. Despite the healthy figures, critics say Bolivia’s economic performance is not a result of better management but rather benign international conditions.