Mexican fast-food operator Alsea has raised $68 million via a secondary share offering, less than the $85.5 million it had expected to sell. The sale, which was postponed from May 25 following the slide in the Mexican bolsa which reflected the worldwide slump in emerging markets, comprised 18 million shares at a price of 42 pesos per share ($3.78). The sale was managed by the Mexican unit of Banco Santander Central Hispano.
Category: Regions
Posted inDaily Brief
América Móvil To Close Deal On Verizon Dominicana
Mexican wireless phone operator América Móvil hopes to close a deal to buy Verizon Dominicana (ex-Codetel), part of the Latin American assets being sold off by the US telecoms giant. América Móvil offered $2.06 billion to buy the Dominican unit in April, along with Verizon’s 28.5% stake in Venezuela’s CANTV for $676.6 million.
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Peru May Go Long In Local Market
Peru is contemplating placing 30-year bonds in the local market, making them the longest maturing local-currency bonds issued by the sovereign to date. (Peru sold 20-year sol-denominated bonds on May 2, raising $40 million.) The government is considering issuing the longer-term paper to cover debt incurred from agrarian reform in the 1960s. Almost $1.5 billion of debt is still owed to landowners whose land was expropriated by the state. The bonds would be denominated in local currency and carry a fixed interest rate. No possible date was revealed for the offering.
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Ecuador Foreign Trade Minister Resigns
Ecuador’s foreign trade minister, Jorge Illingworth, resigned yesterday, Wednesday, after only eight months in the job. He has been replaced, temporarily, by Manuel Chiriboga, Ecuador’s chief negotiator in the free trade talks with the US. A new minister will be named within the next few days.
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Ecuador Will Not Seize Oxy Pipeline Shares
Ecuador has said it will not seize the shares held by the US oil company Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) in the heavy oil pipeline Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP) Ecuador. Last week the government cancelled Oxy’s oil production agreement and took control of its assets in the country. Oxy has a 14.15% stake in OCP, the only private pipeline in operation in Ecuador, which has the capacity to transport up to 450,000 barrels of oil per day.
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Uribe Set For Re-election
Colombia’s president, Alvaro Uribe, looks set to be returned to office for another four-year term this Sunday. His record on national security, as well as economic management, have ensured approval ratings recently of around 60% and have seen investor confidence in the country boosted. His pro-free trade stance, as well as his program of privatization, are rare in the region. If returned to power, he will become the first Colombian president to serve two consecutive terms after Congress last year approved constitutional amendments allowing the president to stand for re-election.
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Colombian Energy Firms Invest In Peru
Colombia’s state-owned electricity company Interconexión Eléctrica (ISA) and state-run Empresa de Energía de Bogotá (EEB) have bought a stake in Hydro-Quebec’s Peruvian subsidiary Consorcio TransMantaro. The companies paid $67 million for the 57% share in the Canadian company’s subsidiary. ISA is Colombia’s largest energy provider.
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Bridgestone To Build Mexico Plant
Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone is to spend $81 million building a carbon black processing plant in Mexico. The plant, to be located in the port of Altamira, in the northern state of Tamaulipas, will boost the company’s global production and is due to be operational by June 2008.
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Gruma Expands Into Russia
Mexican company Gruma, the world’s largest manufacturer of tortillas, is to build two plants in Russia for an initial cost of $100 million. The plants are located in Moscow and will serve that region as well as northern Germany. Gruma already operates in Latin America, the US, Europe, and Australia. Last August it opened a plant in China and plans to expand its operations in Asia as well as looking at moving into Africa.
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Bolivia To Announce Mutún Winner End-May
Bolivia is to announce the winner of the rights to exploit the $1 billion El Mutún iron ore project in the southeast of the country on May 30. There are currently three bidders involved, according to the mining ministry: Anglo-Dutch Mittal Steel, India’s Jindal Steel and Power and Argentina’s Siderar.