Cemex LatAm Sets Price Range

Cemex has set the price range for the IPO of its Cemex LatAm unit, it says, a transaction that would raise COP1.54trn ($857m) at the midpoint. In the carve-out of the Mexican Cement maker’s assets in Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, it is offering 126m shares, including a 15% greenshoe, at COP11,000-13,500 each. Investor meetings are underway, with pricing expected the week of November 5. The setting of a price range – as opposed to a single fixed price given at the opening of the order period – is a new twist for a Colombian sale, as is the plan to split the shares in to local and 144a tranches at the time of pricing rather than in advance. Cemex LatAm posted $466m in Ebitda in the first nine months of 2012, up from $362m in the corresponding period in 2011. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BBVA, Citi and Santander are managing the sale. The deal comes as part of a plan to sell assets to meet debt maturity payments. Cemex in September got creditors to extend to 2017-2018 more than $7.2bn in debt that had been due in 2014, and followed up with a $1.5bn bond sale earlier this month.