Small AIH Offering Marks 2012’s First LatAm IPO

It may have been small, but Andino Investment Holding’s PES116m ($43m) equity offering Thursday can lay claim to being LatAm’s first IPO this year. The Peruvian port operator sold 35m shares at PES3.30 each, in a deal offered to local investors. The issuer had tried to come to market in the third week of January, and was heard eyeing around PES5.00 per share, but it postponed the offer until Thursday. Demand for the sale was heard at 1.2x-1.3x. AIH is raising funds to reduce debt and for expansion projects. BCP managed the sale. AIH has been growing, and borrowed $85m from Goldman Sachs last year to purchase fellow port operators Neptunia and Agencia Maritima. Bigger initial offerings are set to follow in the region. Brasil Travel is preparing to raise up to BRL1.21bn ($703m) on Wednesday, and Colombia’s Construcciones El Condor should launch soon an IPO of at least $70m-equivalent this month.