Peru’s Andino Planning $100 Million Bond Sale After IPO
January 17, 2012, 4:35 PM ESTBy Alex Emery
(Updates with investment plans in seventh paragraph.)
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Andino Investment Holding SA plans to sell $100 million of bonds after it completes Peru’s first initial public offering of stocks in more than a year as the port operator expands amid growing commodity exports.
“The company will need more capital over the next three years as we have a lot of projects,” Chief Executive Officer Carlos Vargas said today in an interview from his Lima offices. “We’re the first logistics company to enter the Lima Exchange, so we can complete investor portfolios.”
Andino registered last year to sell shares for the first time in what would be Peru’s first IPO since fishmeal producer Pesquera Exalmar SAA sold $100 million of stock in November 2010. Peru’s port operators will invest $3 billion in expansion projects over the next four years to handle surging exports according to the country’s port authority.
Andino plans to raise $60 million in the IPO on Jan. 19 to prepay part of an $85 million loan from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and invest in a $250 million port expansion, Vargas, 45, said. Selling bonds means Andino can keep the share sale under a $100 million minimum for pension funds, allowing the company to focus on individual investors who typically keep trading volumes higher than buy-and-hold institutional investors, he said.
Peru, the world’s third-largest copper and zinc producer, has lined up $60 billion in mining and energy investment commitments over the next decade.
Companies from the mining, construction and agricultural industries may sell shares for the first time in Peru this year as the government’s defense of private investment and economic growth bolsters investor sentiment, Francis Stenning, chief executive officer of Bolsa de Valores de Lima, said in a Dec. 20 interview.
Soybeans, Copper
Andino and partner Mota-Engil SGPS SA may invest in storage facilities to handle soybean shipments from Brazil and copper from mining projects being developed in the northern Andes by companies including Anglo American Plc and Newmont Mining Corp., Vargas said.
Andino, which will ship ethanol from Maple Energy Plc’s $245 million project in the first quarter, also plans a $260 upgrade of five regional airports and a $60 million air cargo facility for Lima’s Jorge Chavez Airport, he said.
Andino expects to increase sales by 10 percent this year from $200 million in 2011, Vargas said.
--With assistance from John Quigley in Lima. Editors: James Attwood, Robin Saponar.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Emery in Lima at aemery1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net
