On Latin America’s cross-border front, Brazilian issuer Unibanco was expected to close a securitization of diversified payment rights (DPR) last week, sources said. Handled by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, the deal may be as large as US$200 million. It apparently has both fixed- and floating-rate components. Also in the Brazilian pipeline is a deal for steel producer Acominas. JP Morgan Securities has the mandate, and size is currently talked at US$200. Hunton & Williams is legal counsel for the issuer, according to sources. With a capacity to churn out 3 million tons of crude steel per year, Acominas exports to over 40 countries. Past deals were handled by Artemis Global Finance and WestLB. Acominas last tapped the market with a receivables-backed deal in 1999, a source said.
On the other side of the Andes, a state of emergency in Peru has led to the indefinite delay of a DPR deal from Interbank via Barclays, a source said. In late May, President Alejandro Toledo imposed a state of emergency in the face of escalating protests led by unions. Though Peru has performed swimmingly on the economic front and was one of the few countries that bucked the Argentine crisis of last year, Toledo draws more derision than praise. Press reports indicate that bad PR and a knack for reneging on promises has hacked away at his popularity.
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