Cemex, the largest cement maker in the Americas, has won more than 90% acceptance of an offer to extend maturities on US$ 7.25 billion of loans by three years. Support for the proposal, whose acceptance deadline was extended to 7th September, is said to have bolstered Cemex’s efforts to prevent a financing crunch in 2014 by pushing maturities to 2017.
Support for the proposal, whose acceptance deadline was extended to 7th September, is said to have bolstered Cemex’s efforts to prevent a financing crunch in 2014 by pushing maturities to 2017. The company has posted 11 straight quarterly losses after the U.S housing slump and global economic slowdown hurt demand for building materials.
Originally planning to close the transaction if it won backing from holders of 95% of the debt, the Monterrey, Mexico-based company said the terms will be modified to allow completion with 91% acceptance if the higher target isn’t met by 7th September. In addition to the 90% who agreed to the offer already, Cemex said another 1.5% have already indicated they plan to do so.
Based on current acceptance notices from creditors wanting new high-yield notes that are part of the offer, Cemex said it anticipated issuing a principal amount of $470 million. The company said in June that it would issue as much as $500 million of the notes.
Meanwhile, Cemex has announced that Cemex Latam Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cemex Espana, has applied to the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia to list its shares on the Colombian stock exchange. A minority of Cemex Latam's shares will be made available through a public offering to investors in Colombia and, in a concurrent private placement, to eligible investors outside of Colombia. Cemex Latam's assets are expected to include substantially all of Cemex's assets in Central and South America, which does not include Mexico.
In a written statement, a Cemex spokesperson said: “This application is one component of the previously announced asset sale alternatives Cemex is pursuing in connection with its ongoing initiative to reduce debt and extend its debt maturities.
Cemex continues to pursue its previously announced asset sale alternatives, and ultimate implementation of any of such alternatives (which include the potential sales of: (i) a minority stake in operations in select countries; (ii) selected U.S. assets; (iii) selected European assets; and/or (iv) other non-core assets) remains at the discretion of Cemex.”
