Reuters: Global Markets: Cemex soars on refinancing deal, asset sale news

Reuters: Global Markets Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Cemex soars on refinancing deal, asset sale news Aug 22nd 2012, 14:34 MEXICO CITY | Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:34am EDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Cemex shares rose to an 18-month high on Wednesday on news that the Mexican cement maker is nearing the conclusion of a long-awaited refinancing deal and wants to sell a minority stake in a Latin American unit. On Tuesday, the Monterrey-based company said most of its creditors had signed up for a refinancing deal to push back payment of $7.2 billion of debt and that it was offering a stake in its Cemex Latam unit in the Colombian stock market. Analysts welcomed both steps, which are part of a broader plan that also calls for a debt exchange, asset sales, a $1 billion prepayment and revised financial covenants. Credit Suisse raised Cemex (CMXCPO.MX) to outperform from underperform on Wednesday. The Colombian offer "should allow Cemex to cover most, if not all, of the $1 billion paydown due March 2013 under the refinancing," noted Credit Suisse, which months ago was among the first brokerages to stress Cemex's need to sell a Latam stake. While the paydown "does not improve materially its total debt situation, we believe the above-mentioned milestones bring a credible solution for Cemex's liquidity situation," the firm added in a note. One of the world's biggest cement companies, Cemex was swamped by the 2008 U.S. housing meltdown shortly after paying about $16 billion to buy Australian peer Rinker. It has been working its way out of deep debt obligations for the past three years. Cemex shares were up 5.8 percent at 10.85 pesos on Wednesday morning after rising to 10.99 pesos earlier in the session. In New York, the stock gained 5.1 percent to $8.25. (Reporting by Cyntia Barrera and Michael O'Boyle; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions