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Barbosa, CVRD: “We are a reference point for other companies. We issue at our own risk, not Brazil’s” |
“One thing is beginning to frustrate me: hybrids,” Barbosa eventually says. “I can’t count the number of meetings I have had recently discussing this same idea. I think that sometimes they just want to get a deal, or come here just for the sake of coming. I would say we are now extremely well educated about hybrids.” Barbosa’s tone is light-hearted but he’s not the only person in his position in Latin America who feels that the banks might well be over-pitching hybrids in their quest to extract juicy fees.
Minor grumbling aside, though, Barbosa acknowledges that the access to capital markets provided by banks has been crucial in supplying the funds CVRD needs for expansion. He says the company is nearly fully funded for the financial year; Xavier Astaburuaga, his counterpart at Mexican drinks company Femsa, is in similarly ebullient form when Euromoney calls.
“We are not anticipating any need for funding in the rest of 2006,” Astaburuaga says. “We are always analysing the potential for issuing – we will take advantage of the instruments available to us to issue when it matches our needs, and when the market is right.”