On July 28, Mexican microcredit-lender Compartamos priced a Ps190 million (US$17 million) transaction with a partial guaranty from the International Finance Corporation. Led by Citigroup unit Acciones y Valores, the five-year deal yielded 160 basis points over the benchmark 28-day TIIE. The issue comes off a Ps500 million (US$44 million) program, which might float further deals this year, depending on market conditions, said a source close to the deal (see ASR 7/19, p.20). Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings rated the deal double-A on the national scale, two notches higher than the corporate in both cases. While the company has issued plain vanilla, this was the first deal to go primarily to institutional investors. The transaction also marks the second structured issue to hit Mexico's domestic market since intense interest-rate volatility began to quiet down this month.
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