March 07, 2007 12:15 PM Eastern Time
International Assets Completes Loan Facility in Mexican Housing Sector
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--International Assets Holding Corporation (the “Company”) (NASDAQ:IAAC) today announced that its subsidiary INTL Trading, Inc., on February 27, 2007, as sole structuring agent, successfully closed a loan drawdown facility (the “Facility”) for the Mexico Home Group (“Mexico Home”), one of Mexico’s main developers in the affordable housing sector.
Alessandro Colitto, Head of Structuring, said the Facility is for US$30 million for 2007 and can be increased for future projects after the first year.
The first two drawdowns were successfully funded on February 27, 2007 with a final legal maturity of two years and a coupon of 10% plus a portion of excess cash flows generated.
The initial lender is The Royal Bank of Scotland.
Peter Wallin, Managing Director of the Company’s Miami office, said: "This Facility opens a whole new market not only to Mexico Home but to the whole housing development sector in Mexico, especially the affordable housing segment. There are sophisticated international market participants who know how to isolate sound credits from their context and we specialize in working with those players to assist good borrowers and issuers in unfamiliar environments. Housing is a top priority of the Mexican government and we are happy to be able to assist the Mexican housing authorities, with whom we recently met, in their crucial endeavor to build up to one million low- and medium-income homes per year by 2012. Mexico Home, a solid corporate group, is one of the key players that performs an essential economic and social role in Mexico."
Carlos Valenzuela, Mexico Home's CEO, said: "The housing industry in Mexico has reached a high degree of maturity and is expanding at an annual rate of over 10% that will no doubt be sustained in the medium and long term. However, the developers market is still fragmented and new players are needed to support such an exponential growth, which so far has benefited a relatively limited group of large companies that only account for 25% of the supply. Hence the importance of strong regional players such as Mexico Home with the track-record, expertise, and sophistication required to capture the attention of international lenders and investors and obtain the necessary capital to meet increasing demand with high-quality projects. We are especially proud to be such a player in the context of the exceptional efforts made by the Mexican government through specialized institutions like Infonavit, Fovissste, SHF, the Housing Commission, and the Housing Developers Chamber."
About International Assets Holding Corporation (Nasdaq:IAAC)
International Assets Holding Corporation and its subsidiaries (the "Company") form a financial services group focused on:
*select international financial instruments and securities,
**foreign exchange and
***commodities markets.
We commit our capital and expertise to
*market-making and trading of international financial instruments and securities,
**currencies and
***commodities.
The Company's activities are currently divided into five functional areas --
*international equities market-making,
**international debt capital markets,
***foreign exchange trading,
****commodities trading, and
*****asset management.
The Miami team is in charge of originating and structuring debt capital market transactions for Latin America and is formed by Peter Wallin, Alessandro Colitto, and Jaime Borja.
Additional information regarding the Company is available on the Company's web site at intlassets.com.
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COMMENTARY:
The more this complicated holding company grows their business, the more it will confound the ability of the little guy to decide when to jump in, and thwart the momo players who got their head handed to them when they bought at the top at $49, and dumped after earnings, 2 quarters back.
I LOVE it!
G_T |
