Mexico

Struggling Mexican construction company Empresas ICA SAB said Friday it has secured a $215 million loan to fund current and future work as it outlined a plan to become a much leaner company, The Wall Street Journal reported. ICA, which has $1.35 billion in bonds, missed interest payments late last year and early this year and is in the process of debt restructuring. The company ran into financial difficulties the past two years as earnings fell at its construction division and the depreciation of the Mexican peso led to problems meeting its dollar-denominated debt obligations.

Struggling Mexican construction company Empresas ICA SAB said Friday it has secured a $215 million loan to fund current and future work as it outlined a plan to become a much leaner company, The Wall Street Journal reported. ICA, which has $1.35 billion in bonds, missed interest payments late last year and early this year and is in the process of debt restructuring. The company ran into financial difficulties the past two years as earnings fell at its construction division and the depreciation of the Mexican peso led to problems meeting its dollar-denominated debt obligations.

Mexico’s central bank raised the key lending rate by half a point to 3.75 per cent at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday in an attempt to nip in the bud the prospect of rising inflation, the Financial Times reported. The bank — which followed the US Federal Reserve in lifting rates in December when it lifted rates by a quart of a point, and had been expected to stay in step with the US — stressed its decision was not the start of a rate raising cycle.

Abengoa SA, the Spanish renewable energy company that has filed for creditor protection, missed interest payments to noteholders in Mexico, Bloomberg News reported. Abengoa de Mexico SA investors were due 1.16 million pesos ($70,000) on Thursday, financial advisory Monex Casa de Bolsa SA said in two regulatory filings with BMV, the Latin American nation’s securities exchange. Monex represents holders of the notes, it said. Seville, Spain-based Abengoa filed for preliminary creditor protection with a court in its home city on Nov.

Mexican homebuilder Homex , which emerged from bankruptcy proceedings in July, said on Thursday that the national securities regulator CNBV has cleared its shares to trade again, Reuters reported. Homex shares were suspended last year, when a debt crisis and lack of demand for its homes prompted the company to file for bankruptcy. Read more.

Mexico’s central bank on Wednesday cut its growth outlook for this year, putting pressure on the bank to keep interest rates low as long as possible despite a weak peso, The Wall Street Journal reported. In its quarterly inflation report, the Bank of Mexico slashed its growth estimate to between 1.7% and 2.5% from the previous range of 2% to 3%. If the estimate proves right, it would be a hard blow for President Enrique Peña Nieto. The midpoint of the latest estimate—2.1% growth—means Latin America’s second-largest economy would expand this year at the same pace as in 2014.

Mexico, a middle-income but highly unequal country, is betting on sweeping structural reforms to catapult it into the big league of advanced economies. But it is not winning the battle against poverty and has not been for the past quarter of a century, despite economic growth and its membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). That is the stark conclusion to be drawn from a new bi-annual report from Coneval, a Mexican government agency charged with evaluating social policies.

Mexican homebuilder Homex on Thursday said it had emerged from bankruptcy proceedings and looked forward to resuming business operations, Reuters reported. A court in Culiacan approved the company's bankruptcy plan, the company said in a statement. In May, Homex announced it had agreed a deal with creditors to restructure its debt. Homex, whose shares have not traded since February 2014, has struggled with a heavy debt load and slumping home sales.

A Mexican judge said on Monday he had approved the debt restructing plan for Mexican homebuilder Geo, which entered into bankruptcy protection in April 2014, Reuters reported. The judge said bankruptcy protection for Geo and four of its units was over, according to a court statement. A ruling has not yet been issued for Geo's 11 other subsidiaries. The company's shares have been suspended since 2013 because it was not reporting financial statements.

Mexican homebuilder Geo said on Monday its main creditors have approved its debt restructuring plan, which the firm hopes will allow it to exit bankruptcy proceedings. Shares in the company, formerly Mexico's no. 1 homebuilder, have been suspended since 2013 for not reporting financial statements. Geo went into bankruptcy protection last April. Under the restructuring plan, 88 percent of Geo's share capital will be distributed among its creditors, 8 percent to its current shareholders, and 4 percent to the administration.