Bimbo Lures Lenders to M&A Loan

Bimbo’s relationship lenders – which in December put up $2.3bn to help the Mexican baker acquire assets from Weston Foods – are looking to reduce exposure by syndicating out $1.7bn in 3 and 5-year loans. Bankers hope the transaction will provide a price benchmark to a market sorely lacking order. The margin on the 3-year facility is Libor or TIIE plus 250bp, while the 5-year offers 300bp over. The club of lenders, made up of Bank of America, BBVA, Citi, ING, HSBC and Santander, are apparently requesting pro-rata participation on the two tranches. They are heard to be offering tickets of $212.5m that pay up front fees of 150bp for the 3-year and 175bp for the 5-year portions. Participants may lend in either MXP or USD, according to a banker close to the deal. People close to the transaction say they are pleased with the way things have gone so far with the MLA stage. “Bimbo is a top of the line company,” says a lender away from the deal. Elsewhere, the LatAm bank market is relatively busy for early January. Ternium is out with a $350m via Citi and Calyon, while miners Mirabella and Milpo are expected to reignite syndication efforts to try and close their respective transactions, launched last year. Cemex is meanwhile wrapping up a jumbo refinance.