Carlyle Divests Mexican Telecom

Carlyle Group’s Mexican buyouts team has completed what it says is the first portfolio divestiture in Mexico, selling Hispanic Teleservices Corporation (HTC) to larger French competitor Teleperformance. “HTC was an LBO that also had a growth component. This is the type of deal we’re looking at in Mexico,” Miguel Valenzuela, a director at Carlyle in Mexico, tells LatinFinance. The original purchase in 2005 was financed with a bilateral loan from Scotiabank, which resulted in a total leverage level of around 2.1x. Carlyle’s Mexico group looks to invest $10m-$15m in equity per deal. It is drawing from a $134m fund, of which roughly $84m has already been spent across three deals so far, including HTC, cosmetics company Arabela, and a university. While Carlyle would not disclose the price at which it bought and sold HTC, Valenzuela says he expects the firm’s investors to be very pleased with the return.