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Latam Airlines eyes $1bn share sale
Things have suddenly got tougher for Latam, the merged Lan-Tam airline which just unveiled first-quarter results.
It has a hefty $1.8bn in short-term debt and is suddenly facing heightened competition on its domestic Brazilian, international and cargo routes. No wonder it needs money.
Which explains why it is seeking to raise $1bn from shareholders by October. Continue reading »
Chile Inc wants to ride wave of cheap money too
Chile has traditionally been, quite literally, a copper-bottomed investment.
Now Codelco, the state copper company, and Enap, the state energy company, are preparing international bond issues worth $2.5bn, according to financial newspaper Diario Financiero. Continue reading »
Spain’s economic crisis is writ large in the Inter-American Development Bank’s latest statistics on remittance flows to Latin America.
For years, thousands of Bolivians, Ecuadoreans and Colombians have been among those to seek work in Spain, legally or illegally. Whether young educated professionals, or poor maids, cleaners and construction labourers, these workers could see the advantages of saving Euros that would magically multiply back home into pesos or dollars or bolivianos. Continue reading »
Chile and the copper price rout
It is the world’s top copper producer; copper makes up more than half the value of its exports and 15 per cent of its GDP. Windfalls from sales of the red metal are squirreled into sovereign wealth funds, to allow countercyclical spending on a rainy day. The last thing Chile wants is for copper prices to fall, as they have been doing lately – hitting an 18 month low this week. Continue reading »
In Chile, clothing prices cause statistical uproar
In Chile, clothing represents 5 per cent of the index so is a key component of inflation. But 11 managers at Chile’s state statistics agency, INE, have written to Francisco Labbé, the institute’s chief, complaining at what they see as a failure to implement methodological changes over how to measure clothing prices.
The upshot? Chile’s inflation statistics are being discredited, they say. Continue reading »
Chile suspends Barrick Gold mine
By Jude Webber and Naomi Mapstone
Another mining project in a minerals-rich Andean country has been hit by another environmental/indigenous complaint. Digging up precious metals as a way of achieving economic prosperity, especially in areas of outstanding natural beauty, has never been so fraught.
The latest casualty is the Chilean side of Barrick Gold’s Pascua-Lama project, which promises to be one of the world’s biggest gold mines. Continue reading »
Guest post: the Pacific Alliance and why it matters
By Jorge Rosenblut of Endesa Chile
In January I had the honor to attend a summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin-American and Caribbean Nations in Santiago, Chile. As with many such meetings, the 45 heads of state and prime ministers captured the attention of the international media. But what went almost unnoticed was a seismic shift in Latin American integration — a group of four countries that stood together in what promises to be a historic breakthrough for the region. Continue reading »
Chile: lots of copper, nowhere to go
By Jude Webber and Jack Farchy
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, so the saying goes.
But a $200m-a-day lunch? That is about what a nearly three-week-old ports strike in Chile is costing in paralysed exports and imports, according to Chile’s Chamber of Commerce. There are some 9,000 tonnes a day of copper trapped in ports in the world’s top copper producing nation because of the stoppage. Continue reading »
Chileans, quit buying stuff!
Slow down, Chilean consumer spending, you grow too fast.
That is the warning from Capital Economics after Chile published yet another stellar growth figure – a 6.7 per cent leap in economic activity (as measured by the monthly GDP proxy called Imacec) in January compared with January 2012. Continue reading »
Santander: non-performing loans on the rise in LatAm, too
Some interesting nuggets in Santander’s full year earning results on Thursday.
While much of the focus has been on losses stemming from property loans made in its domestic Spanish market, investors would also do well to pay attention to rising bad loans in Latin America, a region that now accounts for half of the group’s total profits. Continue reading »
Latin America’s misery index
Latin America has just got three more reasons to beat its chest. Unemployment has fallen to new or near-record lows in Brazil (4.6 per cent), Chile (6 per cent) and Colombia (10 per cent). No wonder the region’s domestic economies are powering along: have job, will spend. No wonder, also, that so many Europeans are beating a path to the new world in search of a job. Unemployment levels in Spain and Portugal are 26 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. Eat your heart out former “colonial masters”! Continue reading »
Chilecon Valley: LatAm’s anti-Brazil
Want to start a business? Chile could be the place for you.
The government is slashing through what little red tape remains in what is already one of the speediest places in the region – and, indeed, the world – to set up a company. As of May, the process will be free, online – and, incredibly, doable in a day. Continue reading »
Chile: on a par with China, ratings-wise
Already considered the safest bet for investors in Latin American sovereign debt, the government of Chile received a nod of approval from the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s on Wednesday, as its long-term foreign currency credit rating was notched up to AA-.
This puts the fast-growing Andean nation in some esteemed company – and ahead of all of its regional peers. Continue reading »
An early Christmas present for Chile’s Enersis
Christmas has come early – for Chile’s Enersis.
Shareholders in the energy company have approved Chile’s biggest capital increase — a whopping sum of nearly $6bn (if you think that´s a lot, remember they were originally planning to seek $8bn).
It was not an easy path — Enersis battled pension funds, which are key investors in Chile, over the amount and minority shareholders baulked at the valuation of some of the assets that Spanish energy company Endesa said it would use to subscribe its share of the fundraising. Endesa, by the way, is owned by Enel of Italy. Continue reading »
Despite inflation, Chile sticks with its interest rates
Chile’s latest monetary policy report (IPoM) from the Central Bank (BCCh) paints a rosy picture to end the year on – more inflation and less growth in 2013. That’s nice. Continue reading »
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