Banorte Joins FARAC as Bookrunner

Mexico’s Banorte has joined as a bookrunner the $3.1bn equivalent 7-year peso acquisition facility for FARAC, skipping the MLA tier altogether. Santander, NordLB and Dexia, the original three bookrunners, are looking for MLA participation and have up to 15 banks considering taking the $300m tickets. Banorte’s move to take a bookrunner-sized participation is evidence that there’s strong enthusiasm from locals to participate. It may also mean that prospective MLAs are hesitating to take on the all-peso risk. The MLA deadline is today, Friday, though a handful more are expected to join the group in the first half of next week.