Category: Regions

Mexican company Gruma, the world’s largest manufacturer of tortillas, offered 30 million new shares yesterday, Monday, at Ps38.25 per share looking to raise around $109 million. Gruma is aiming to increase its capital and improve the liquidity of its securities in the markets. Gruma is one of the main tortilla suppliers for US fast food chains and food retailers. Following the sale of new shares, the company’s capitalization will increase by around 6.6% to $1.8 billion.

Banorte will become the first Mexican financial institution to buy a foreign bank when it acquires 70% of Texan Inter National Bank for $259 million. Monterrey-based Banorte, Mexico’s fourth-largest bank in asset terms, says the acquisition is part of a strategy to benefit from the growing Hispanic market in the US. INB has assets of nearly $1.1 billion. Banorte says that in addition to the 70% stake it will take an option to buy the remaining 30% over the next five years. The deal is subject to US and Mexican regulatory approval.

Gerardo Rodríguez, Head of Public Credit of Mexico will participate in a panel discussion on Latin American Capital Markets at the next Latin American Borrowers and Investors Forum in Miami on February 16th. The panel will debate on whether local markets are deep enough to satisfy the demand of funds; what Latin American governments still need to do to facilitate and encourage the entry of foreign capital into local markets and the explosion of peso-denominated mortgage-backed securities in Mexico and its impact in the market among other topics. Mr. Rodriguez will be joined by Jeff Huther, Director of Debt for the US Department of Treasury; Atul Mehta, Head of Latin America and the Caribbean at the IFC; Simon Nocera, Partner at Lumen Advisors LLC; Felipe Sardi, General Director of Public Credit and National Treasury of Colombia and Arthur Steinmetz, Head of International Bond Trading at Oppenheimer Funds Inc. To learn more please visit www.latinfinance.com/labif

Mexico’s central bank has cut the benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point to 7.75%, the lowest level in almost a year and a half. Record core inflation figures of 3%, as at mid January, spurred the bank to cut the rate for the six consecutive month. Economists expect this to be the last big reduction to the benchmark rate by the central bank for the next few months due to inflationary concerns.

Mexico’s state oil company Pemex is arranging new financing that is expected to result in a total $5.5 billion of syndicated loans. The loans will include two floating-rate loans of $1.5 billion and $2.75 billion with five and seven-year maturities respectively. Last week the company reopened two of its notes – a 10-year and a 30-year issuance, to offer a further $1.5 billion of debt. The money raised will be used for refinancing existing debt. The syndicated lending is being led by BBVA, Calyon, Citigroup, HSBC, Santander and Scotia Capital.

Mexico’s booming exports last year helped to narrow the country’s trade deficit to $7.56 billion, a drop of just over 14% compared with 2004. Mexico’s total exports in 2005 were up 13.7% year on year to $213.7 billion, helped by a buoyant automotive sector exporting to the US. In general, the non-oil sector was up by over 10% during the year, while the high price of crude oil helped to keep oil export figures healthy. Imports rose 12.4% year on year to $221.3 billion.

Mexican telephone operator Teléfonos de México (Telmex), owned by local business magnate Carlos Slim, it to tap the international markets with 10-year local currency bonds. Telmex’s offering would be only the second ever Mexican peso-denominated corporate issue. The first such issuance was made last November by another of Slim’s companies, cell phone operator América Móvil, which sold 5 billion pesos ($476 million) of 10-year bonds.