Bimbo Mulls Liability Management

Mexican bankers are heard pitching cash-rich Bimbo a liability management transaction, which could happen this year. “I feel there will be opportunities in the markets,” Bimbo CFO Guillermo Quiroz tells LatinFinance. “Maybe we’ll do something to increase the duration,” he adds. Bimbo’s debt has an average life of 3.2 years and is 50-50 MXP/USD, more or less in line with earnings. The company has $300m due in 2010 and no major amortizations the following year. There is a $1bn total looming in 2012. Following the late 2008 acquisition of Weston Foods assets in the US, which pushed leverage above 4.0x debt:Ebitda, Bimbo aims to get leverage down to 2.0x this year. It was roughly 2.5x in February.