Office Depot share sale advances as equity markets take battering

Grupo Gigante’s sale of 253m shares in Office Depot de Mexico is advancing and is due to be priced on Wednesday, LatinFinance understands. The news comes after another day of losses on stock markets in the region and globally. Brazil’s Ibovespa index lost 3.13% on Monday — dragged down by a particularly dire day for shares of Petrobras and construction firm Gafisa — while Chile’s IPSA fell 1.34%, echoing losses in global indices. The Mexican exchange was closed on Monday, but has also suffered this year: it closed at 40,880 on Friday, down 3.8% from its early-January high. Some large accounts were waiting until the last opportunity to submit bids for the Office Depot sale, to minimize market volatility, LatinFinance understands. The all-secondary sale could raise as much as MXN4.5bn ($333m) if it lands at the top of the MXN16 to MXN18 price range set last month, excluding a greenshoe or hot issue allocation. BBVA Bancomer and Credit Suisse are arranging the sale.