Ecuador’s Banco de Guayaquil has offered $8 million of convertible bonds. The offering means that the bank now has a 12% solvency ratio, above the 9% required by the law. This is the fourth issuance of convertibles by the Bank.
Category: Regions
Posted inDaily Brief
Bolivia May Also Leave CAN
Bolivia has said that it too will leave the Community of Andean Nations (CAN) and become part of the Mercosur trade bloc instead, should member nations Colombia, Ecuador and Peru follow through with their free trade agreements with the US. Earlier this week, Bolivian president Evo Morales called on Venezuela, CAN’s fifth member nation, to reconsider its withdrawal from the trade bloc and urged dialogue with the other member nations.
Posted inDaily Brief
Almendral Denies Entel Sale
Chilean holding company Almendral has denied media reports that it is to sell mobile phone operator Entel to Mexican telecoms firm América Móvil. Almendral, which comprises Hurtado Vicuña, Fernandez León, Matte, Izquierdo and Gianoli investor groups, acquired Entel last year from Telecom Italia for $934 million.
Posted inDaily Brief
Unión Fenosa Sells Mexican Airports Stake
Spanish utility company Unión Fenosa has sold its 33.3% stake in airport operator Aeropuertos Mexicanos del Pacífico (AMP) for $118 million to Spain’s AENA Internacional and local firm CMA. The deal has yet to be approved by Mexican regulators. AMP is part of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP), the country’s largest airport operator. In February, the Mexican government raised $870 million from the sale of its 85% stake of GAP.
Posted inDaily Brief
García To Win In Second Round
A poll just published in Peru has shown that former president Alan García, who seems the most likely candidate to face nationalist Ollanta Humala in a run-off, will win the presidency in the second-round vote. García, who trailed both Humala and conservative Lourdes Flores throughout the election campaign, is predicted to beat Humala in the run-off, with 54% of the votes against 46%.
Posted inDaily Brief
Morales Asks Chávez To Stay
Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, has called on Venezuela to reconsider its decision to leave CAN, the Andean trade bloc which comprises Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, has responded by saying that he will reconsider his country’s withdrawal from CAN if Peru and Colombia reconsider going ahead with their free trade agreements with the US. Last week Chávez announced he was taking Venezuela out of CAN to protect it from “being flooded by US products” from Peru and Colombia.
Posted inDaily Brief
Pequiven Buys 47.2% Of Monómeros
Venezuelan state-owned petrochemical company Pequiven has bought 47.2% of Colombian firm Monómeros, which produces raw materials for the agrochemicals industry. Pequiven paid $53.7 million to state companies Ecopetrol and IFI for their shares in Cartagena-based Monómeros to take the controlling stake.
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Calderon Takes Lead In Mexico Campaign
Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party has taken the lead from former Mexico City mayor, Andres Lopez Obrador, for the first time in the Mexican presidential campaign ahead of elections in July. According to the most recent poll, Calderon’s support has risen from 31% in March to 38% in April, while Obrador fell back to 35% from 41% for the same period.
Posted inDaily Brief
Nicaragua Right Chooses Presidential Candidate
Nicaragua’s largest right-wing party, Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC), has chosen José Rizo as its presidential candidate for the country’s upcoming elections in November. Rizo will stand against former president and Sandinista Daniel Ortega. The prospect of either candidate as the future president of Nicaragua has set off alarm bells in the United States, which has been lobbying all the right-leaning parties to unify and pick a candidate, other than Rizo, to defeat Ortega.
Posted inDaily Brief
Bolivia Increases Control Over Oil Sector
Bolivia is to stop oil companies setting the price of oil as well as the volume of oil exports. The government will also be implementing shortly a law approved by Congress last year that increases taxes on oil and gas production to 50% from 18%. Spain’s Repsol YPF and Brazil’s Petrobras, the country’s largest oil and gas producers, will have to charge more to their units abroad to purchase supplies from their operations in Bolivia. Speaking at the IMF Spring meeting in Washington, Carlos Villegas, Bolivia’s planning and development minister, commented: “With the same company being the buyer and seller, volumes and prices are significantly altered at the expense of the Bolivian government and to the benefit of the company … This is going to change.”