Loma Negra, Argentina’s leading cement producer, will receive up to $125 million in medium-term financing in a transaction led by the Inter-American Development Bank to support the company’s capital expenditure program.
Last year the IDB approved a $100 million A/B facility for Loma Negra, which is owned by the Brazilian conglomerate Camargo Correa. Due to a successful syndication and an oversubscription of the B loan, the financing was increased by $25 million.
The transaction was structured in an eight-year, $20 million A loan from the IDB and a five-year, $105 million B loan, which was syndicated among Santander, Standard Bank, Itaú, HSBC, BBVA and BNP.
“This expanded facility will offer Loma Negra longer tenors than are currently available in the Argentine financial market. It reflects both the strength of its corporate parent and an increasingly receptive credit market,” said Jozef Henriquez, chief of the Syndication Unit of the IDB’s Structured and Corporate Finance Department.
Loma Negra has already started on the expansion and modernization of key production plants. These investments will boost its total installed production capacity by about 20 percent. The company also plans to install state-of-the-art gas and dust filters in its plants and enclose warehouses to cut dust emissions during transportation and storage of materials. Additionally, it will upgrade its fuel handling facilities and clean and restore abandoned limestone quarries.
The IDB is the leading source of long-term finance for economic and social development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its Structured and Corporate Finance Department is responsible for non sovereign-guaranteed operations, which involve loans and partial credit guarantees for private and public sector borrowers.