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Technology Stocks : Leap Wireless International (LWIN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RalphCramden who wrote (189)	1/25/1999 9:57:00 PM
From: SKIP PAUL	Respond to of 2737

Mexico's Pegaso Seeks $100 Million Loan to Build Phone Network Bloomberg News Jan 25 1999 2:37PM ET Mexico's Pegaso Seeks $100 Million Loan to Build Phone Network Cancun, Mexico, Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's Pegaso Telecomunicaciones SA expects to soon sign a $100 million loan to finance the construction of its telephone network. The bridge loan, which will likely have a one-year maturity, will tide over Pegaso's investment needs until financial markets recover, allowing the company to issue bonds, said Juan Marco Gutierrez, Pegaso's chief financial officer. ''We are negotiating this (the loan) while we wait for the markets to come back,'' said Guttierez, interviewed at a conference in Cancun. ''We'll be seeking to sell some sort of debt.'' Pegaso, which is 33 percent owned by San Diego-based Leap Wireless International Inc., stands by its $1.2 billion investment plan over the next five years to build a fixed and mobile wireless network, even as Brazil's devaluation last week could increase financing costs for Latin American companies. Grupo Televisa SA, the largest broadcaster in Mexico, also has a stake in Pegaso. The company has a financing agreement with telecommunications equipment company Qualcomm Inc. for about $600 million and in November signed a financing agreement with France's Alcatel SA for $270 million worth of equipment. Gutierrez declined to say which banks would participate in the loan. Pegaso expects to start operating commercially in Tijuana in coming weeks and plans to gain 140,000 clients by the end of the year. --Katherine Baldwin in Mexico City (525) 514-7618 Ext. 225, or through the New York newsroom (212) 318-2300/hl Story illustration: To graph the recent share performance of Leap Wireless' shares, see LWIN US