Chile’s BCI Taps Mexican Market

Chile’s Banco de Credito e Inversiones (BCI) has issued MXP2bn ($170m) through a 5-year floater, becoming the second-ever Chilean borrower to tap the Mexican market. This follows Chilean miner Molymet, which has also sold bonds to Mexican investors. The deal priced at TIIE+40bp and was 1.23x oversubscribed, says a banker familiar with the transaction. The bonds were bought by a mix of private banks, mutual funds, investment funds, insurance funds and bank treasuries. Banco de Credito, rated AAA on a national scale was brought to market by HSBC with proceeds going towards general corporate purposes. BCI follows Chilean mining company Molymet, which has mining operations in Mexico and has done three MXP bond issuances. The last was in April, for MXP 1.5bn in 1.5-year bonds priced at TIIE +55bp. BCI tried to go outside Chile for funds for the first time in September, when plans for a 5-year USD were derailed by pricing concerns and instead it elected to raise 10-year funds locally.