Alcogal, capital markets law firm in Panama, acted as lead counsel to Promerica Financial Corporation in connection with its first US issuance of notes worth US$200 million.
It is one of the few issuances of a multijurisdictional bank holding company, since Promerica Financial Corporation is the majority shareholder of a network of commercial banks operating across Central and South America and the Caribbean. The deal closed in November 2018.
Capital markets law firm in Panama
This first issue of Promerica is documented under New York law and registered in the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The bonds, which have a term of 6 years, were issued under the format 144A, Regulation S of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to qualified institutional investors.
The issue was structured by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, two of the largest and most prestigious global financial institutions, which acted as joint bookrunners. Banco General de Panamá and BLADEX acted as co-administrators of the transaction. Banpro was the founding bank of Grupo Promerica in Central America and is the main operating subsidiary of PFC.
Partner Arturo Gerbaud and associates Patricia Cordero and Rafael Marquinez participated in this transaction.
Grupo Promerica
Grupo Promerica is a group of financial companies established in 1991 in Panama City when founding Banpro Grupo Promerica, which later expanded its operations through the creation of Banco de la Producción in Nicaragua, St. Georges Bank in Panama and Cayman Islands, and Banco Promerica in El Salvador, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, all of them controlled by the holding Promerica Financial Corporation (PFC).
PFC is a bank holding company domiciled in Panama, authorized to operate and supervised by the Superintendencia de Bancos de Panama. The company has consolidated assets of US$14 billion, deposits of US$10.6 billion and capital of US$1.3 billion.
PFC is the majority shareholder in commercial banks in nine countries in Central, South America, and the Caribbean, and it is the third largest financial institution in the region. Among important recent transactions are the acquisition of Produbanco in 2015, the second largest bank in Ecuador, and the banking operations of Citibank in Guatemala in 2016.
Grupo Promerica offers regional collections, regional accounts, centralized regional treasury, electronic factoring, securities or bank guaranties, business loans, credit lines, business credit cards, among other products and services.
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