Sao Paulo, Brazil -- Brazilian company Globopar last week
sold $300 million in 10-year dollar Eurobonds, only a few months after securing control of
one of Brazil's top MSOs, Multicanal.
The sale gives Globopar, which does not have publicly
traded stock, an important capital infusion. And analysts said the transaction is a sign
of the times. With Brazil's cable-licensing process set to fly again after being
bogged down in a legal quagmire, debt-financing arrangements by companies hoping to win
new licenses are expected to become more common, said Morgan Stanley's director in
Brazil, Andrew Tisdale.
"There is a group of companies that are now designing
their financing structures," Tisdale said. Another factor nudging companies back to
the financial markets is a calmer trading environment, following the turmoil of last fall,
which was triggered by the crash across Asian economies. Brazil was the Latin American
market most severely hit by the financial meltdown.
This, in part, explains the timing of the Globopar
offering, said Bob Kricheff, managing director of Credit Suisse First Boston. "Latin
American companies had their hands tied last year with the Asian crisis ... It was just a
matter of timing for these companies to come back" to the market, Kricheff said.
Jo Dallas contributed to this article.
