Category: Peru

Intergroup Financial Services, the main shareholder of Peru’s Interbank filed to sell 20.9% of Interbank in a local and offshore 144a equity offering Friday. The sale of 19.23m common shares in the global offering and 18.69m common shares in a Peru offering should raise between $230m and $270m based on the indicative price range of $12-$14 a share. Pricing is set for June 20. Selling shareholders are IFH Peru Ltd, Wimsie Investments and Inversionista Golden Hill. Proceeds are for Interbank’s expansion and possible acquisitions. Citi is global coordinator and Citicorp Peru and Centura are handling the local sale.

Peruvian holding company Intergroup Financial Services, which owns Interbank and Interseguro, is to float 21% of its stock via local and international share offerings later this month. Intergroup anticipates selling around 19.2m shares in a global offering, of which around 18.7m will be sold in the local market. A guide price of between $12 and $14 per ordinary share has been given. Intergroup said the money raised will be used to finance expansion of Interbank, for general corporate purposes and for potential strategic acquisitions in the Peruvian financial services market.

Peru succeeded in increasing tax revenues by 15% in May, compared with the same month in 2006, according to figures published by the national tax agency Sunat. The $1.02bn total (3.23bn soles) included 1.51bn soles in income tax (+15.7%) and 1.05bn of value-added tax, or IGV, (+12%). Tax revenues accounted for 14.9% of GDP in 2006, and are forecast by the government to reach 16.5% of GDP by 2010.

Spain’s Grupo Santander has been granted a license to operate in Peru by the country’s banking superintendency. The approval means Santander will return to Peru after a five-year absence. In 2002 it sold its retail and mutual funds business to local Banco de Crédito for $50m. In February, Santander applied for a license to offer financial and investment banking services to corporates and other institutions in Peru. HSBC of the UK won approval to start operations in Peru last October. Earlier in the year, Canada’s Scotiabank bought control of Banco Sudamericano and merged it with Banco Wiese, which it had purchased in 2005, to create a new entity in which Scotiabank holds 80%.

Peru will seek to raise as much as possible in the international and domestic bond markets this year to cover its prepayment of up to $2.6bn of Paris Club debt at the start of October, according to finance minister Luiz Carranza. The sovereign is expecting to issue 30-year paper, denominated in pesos and foreign currency to raise the money. Peru last prepaid debt to the Paris Club lenders in 2005 when it arranged to clear $1.5bn.

Representatives of the Paris Club creditor countries have accepted Peru’s offer to prepay its debt rescheduled in 1993 and 1996 and not granted under Official Development Assistance conditions, according to an official statement by the Paris Club. The decision follows a meeting in Paris earlier this week to study the proposals. According to Paris Club rules, each creditor country may decide to participatRepresentatives of the Paris Club creditor countries have accepted Peru’s offer to prepay its debt rescheduled in 1993 and 1996 and not granted under Official Development Assistance conditions, according to an official statement by the Paris Club. The decision follows a meeting in Paris earlier this week to study the proposals. According to Paris Club rules, each creditor country may decide to participate or not in this operation. For the participating creditors, the prepayment of around $2.54bn will be made on 1 October 2007, after conclusion of bilateral implementation agreements. e or not in this operation. For the participating creditors, the prepayment of around $2.54bn will be made on 1 October 2007, after conclusion of bilateral implementation agreements.

Meanwhile, the government of Peru has amended its shelf registration with the SEC of the US, increasing the amount from $4bn to $5bn. Peru originally filed the shelf last December. The shelf registration allows the sovereign to sell debt securities and in one or more offerings and denominated in different currencies.

Ismael Benavides, a former minister and banker, has been appointed Peru’s new agriculture minister replacing Juan José Salazar who resigned earlier this month. Benavides was fisheries minister in the 1980s and was chief executive of Banco Internacional del Peru for more than 10 years.