CorpBanca Readies Equity Roadshow

Chile’s CorpBanca is set to begin meeting investors Monday, ahead of the expected January 15 pricing of the international portion of an equity follow-on that should eventually top $600m-equivalent, according to sources familiar with the transaction. The acquisitive Chilean bank has registered to sell up to 12bn common shares internationally, represented by 8m ADS, which would raise $165m based on Wednesday’s $20.64 price. The shares in the cross-border sale include 1.35bn secondary shares sold by vice chairman Fernando Aguad. The international offer is to be followed by a Chilean rights offering that could bring the raise to the 47bn share limit, which would raise $640m in total. The controlling Saieh Group has waived its preemptive rights. Proceeds are to be used to help fund the $1.28bn purchase of Helm Bank in Colombia announced in October. BTG Pactual is managing the sale, with Celfin and CorpBanca as co-managers. At the time of the Helm announcement, the IFC agreed to buy 5% of the bank, a stake to be included in the upcoming rights offering and estimated at the time to be $225m. In late 2011, CorpBanca bought Santander’s Colombia operation for $1.16bn, which was followed by a $533m-euqivalent equity follow-on in June 2012.