After the recent acquisition of Banco Nacional de Mexico (Banamex) by Citigtroup, market participants are quite curious to see exactly what will happen. One change for sure is that Banamex's future-flow, credit card receivables deal is expected to hit the market at a much larger size than originally anticipated.
The Banamex transaction is now said to be $450 million, up $150 million from the original size of $300 million. Prior to the acquisition, there was a syndicated loan deal involving a trade finance facility transaction in the pipeline and as a result of the recent events, it was pulled. "They decided that it wasn't a good time to be talking to many banks in the market so they decided to pull the trade finance deal and increase this transaction instead," said one market source close to the deal.
MBIA and Ambac are wrapping the deal and it is anticipated that it will close by the end of this month. While it is the fourth transaction Banamex has done since 1995, it is a substantially larger size than the others.
"It's kind of easy for them to move forward because they have a well performing program," the market source said. "It's a good example of how someone takes the time to set up a well thought-out program and then comes back to market opportunistically. They are able to raise financing even though now is not a good time to be out in the market since the market is still in flux."
