One of Latin America’s largest steel producers, Ternium, has offered to buy Mexican steel group Callado for an undisclosed sum. Ternium is based in Luxembourg but controlled by Grupo Techint of Argentina. Callado had sales last year of around $437 million.
Category: Regions
Posted inDaily Brief
Colombia Increased Bond Buyback To $1.1 Billion
Colombia increased its buyback of dollar- and euro-denominated bonds from $700 million to $1.1 billion. It was the largest such operation ever carried out by the sovereign. The Finance Ministry said it decided to increase the amount because of large bondholder interest. The buyback was carried out last Wednesday and was led by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.
Posted inDaily Brief
Foreign Portfolio Investment Climbs in Colombia
Foreign portfolio investment in Colombian equities to August rose 15.8% to $955.6 million, compared with figures to July. This is up 178.8% compared with the same period in 2004. Analysts attribute the rise to the country’s improved economic performance and the weakness of the dollar. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investment in debt was down by 14.5% to $346.6 million, although year-on-year investment was up 254.6%.
Posted inDaily Brief
Peru and Bolivia Renew Gas Agreement
Peru and Bolivia have renewed an agreement to transport gas from Tarija in southern Bolivia to a Peruvian port on the Pacific Ocean and then onwards to Mexico and the US. Peru confirmed that the participation of Bolivia is vital in the project to build a gas pipeline network from the south of Peru. Meanwhile, President Alejandro Toledo of Peru said that Peru’s own gas reserves in the southern region of Camisea are much higher than first thought. Toledo says he is keen to promote energy integration in Latin America to protect the region against the international price fluctuations of crude oil.
Posted inDaily Brief
Colombia To Outline Sale of Telecoms Licenses
Colombia is expected to outline plans imminently for the sale of fixed wireless broadband licenses. Although only current fixed-line operators can bid for the national licenses, other operators will be able to apply for departmental ones. Bidders for the departmental licenses will be guaranteed to win if there are no other applications submitted within 30 days, otherwise normal competition rules will apply.
Posted inDaily Brief
Petroecuador To Buy 1.2 Tons of Gas
Ecuador’s state-owned oil producer Petroecuador will buy 1.2 metric tons of gas to cover domestic demand for the next two years due to the lack of national production. An agreement with London-based Trafigura to provide natural gas runs out at the end of this year and 50 companies have so far submitted bids for the new contract.
Posted inDaily Brief
Colombia: Surprise Lending Rate Cut
In a surprise move on Friday, Colombia cut its overnight lending rate from 6.5% to 6%, the first reduction since December last year. The cut is aimed at slowing the rise of the peso to protect local exporters. The Colombian currency has strengthened 10% against the dollar over the past 12 months.
Posted inDaily Brief
Peru GDP Growth Falls Below 6%
However, Peru’s GDP growth rate in July again slowed to 4.92%, less than the government 6.5% forecast and market expectation of 5.9%. This follows growth of only 4.6% recorded in June, the lowest level since last October. Since then, growth rates have been consistently above 6%.
Posted inDaily Brief
Colombia Sells $500 million in Bonds
Colombia yesterday began selling $500 million dollar-denominated bonds maturing in 2024, reopening its January 2004 issue. Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch are managing the sale. This follows an announcement last week that Colombia will buy back $700 million in euro- and dollar-denominated bonds due 2006 and 2033.
Posted inDaily Brief
Mexican Presidential Favourite Cancels US Visit
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ex mayor of Mexico City and the favorite to win Mexico’s 2006 presidential elections has been forced to cancel a visit to Los Angeles after officials told him it is illegal to campaign outside the country. In June, Congress voted to allow Mexicans abroad to vote in next years’ presidential elections.