Yamana to take on full control of El Penon

After ten years of exploiting the gold- and silver-mine El Penon in Chile, the constructor Gardilcic has sold up the entirety of its operations to Canadian company Yamana Gold, already the owner of the reserve. Yamana is working to a strategy of total control of its operations. El Penon is to be found 165 kilometres south-east of Antofagasta and boasts an annual production capacity of over 400,000 ounces of gold equivalent, explains country manager for the gold group, Ricardo Palma Contesse. The transfer of operational responsibility will actually occur on January 5, 2010, although Gardilcic will remain on site for four more months.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
December 6, 2009

CGE Distribucion launches energy saving products and services

Chilean energy company CGE Distribucion has launched a new range of energy saving products and services in Chile, including energy saving services for industry, LED lighting and solar energy. LED lighting could be sold into various areas, such as building developments, manufacturing, car parks, traffic lights as well as railway and maritime signalling.

Publication: Esmerk - News monitoring
Provider: Esmerk
December 4, 2009

Consorcio Financiero to take regional stake in Compass Group

Chilean financial services group Consorcio Financiero will swap its 50% stake in Compass Group Chile for a 15% stake in the latter's Americas franchise, which includes offices in the US, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

Consorcio Financiero will also buy Compass Group's 12.5% stake in the fund manager which Consorcio operates with Chilean stock broker and investment banking firm LarrainVial, local press reported. As a result, Consorcio will end up with 25% of the fund manager and LarrainVial will hold the remainder. Compass Group on its part will step up its business focus on institutional investors and high net worth clients, both in Chile and in the Americas.

Publication: Business News Americas - English News
Provider: Business News Americas
December 4, 2009

Lafarge renamed as Melon, new directors appointed

Lafarge Chile has ceased to exist. Its cement company in Chile has been renamed Melon SA, which was the name it used to have before Lafarge bought it. The firm's board has been expanded to ten members, as opposed to seven as Jorge Carey, Patricio de Solminihac and Juan Claro Gonzalez, all members of the previous board, have been appointed as directors. Lafarge's assets were acquired by Peruvian holding Brescia some time ago. The firm is building a new plant which will add an extra 600,000 tonnes per year of production capacity.

Publication: Esmerk - News monitoring
Provider: Esmerk
October 23, 2009

Sales of sports footwear and clothing increases by 15%

Sport is becoming increasingly popular in Chile over recent years, a fact which has been noted by the sports clothing and food sectors. Nike has estimated that annual sector sales over the last five years have increased on average by 15%, with overall yearly sales of footwear and clothing in Chile standing at USD 700mn (EUR 475.87mn).

Jogging and running has become an increasingly important activity and consolidated sales growth in the sector, according to Adidas, has surpassed 150% over the last three years. Nike forecasts a 35% increase for jogging related equipment, mostly trainers, in 2009. Adidas stated that there were 12,000 participants in the 2007 Adidas marathon and the company expects this to increase to 20,000 in 2010. Sports club Balthus has indicated that its industry has grown at 10% in terms of volume (especially in Greater Santiago) and there is plenty of room for growth.

Balthus expects its revenues to reach USD 10mn in 2009, similar to its 2008 results, and is planning to expand operations in Argentina and Peru. Correspondingly, sales of healthy foodstuffs have increased, including US nutritional products company Herbalife, which has increased the number of its distributors from 2,700 in 1998 to 22,000 in 2009 and volume sales have increased nine-fold.

Chile: Publication: Esmerk - News monitoring
Provider: Esmerk
September 29, 2009

Hotelga expects hotel occupancy rate to fall by 18% year-on-year

Mauro Magnani, the Chairman of the Chilean federation for the hotel and gastronomy industry (Hotelga), has revealed that the occupancy rate in Chilean hotels is expected to be down by 18% year-on-year in 2009. According to Magnani 2010 is expected to be a more positive year, but Chile needs to be promoted more abroad. The Hotelga Chairman has called on the State to inject more resources so that the industry can penetrate new markets. Magnani has indicated that most of the tourists that visit Chile come from France, the US and Germany.

Publication: Esmerk - News monitoring
Provider: Esmerk
September 4, 2009

Saieh buys first chunk of Ripley

Alvaro Saieh has bought into Ripley, acquiring a 5% stake 95 days ahead of the deadline he and the Calderon family had thrashed out not so long ago (early May 2009). The owner and controller of the supermarket chain SMU and also the financial group Corpbanca, Saieh is still negotiating his entry into the controlling shareholders' pact regarding the retail chain Ripley. He has spent US$44.3mil on the stake and can buy a further 15% of Ripley from Marcelo Calderon before the end of November. If the option is taken up, Calderon will receive US$178mil for a 20% stake (until yesterday, he owned 42% of Ripley); if Saieh is also welcomed into the pact before December, Calderon will receive US$198mil for the stake.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
September 1, 2009

Besalco begins building new housing projects

Chilean construction group Besalco is reactivating its property-sector plans and studying new energy-sector opportunities. Diversification enabled the company to double its profits in the first half of 2009, its general director, Paulo Bezanilla, noting that the capital increase of almost Peso$30bil planned for early September should give the firm the wherewithal to benefit from the economic green shoots he observes.

Besalco has begun the construction of the first stages of three housing projects this month via investment of almost US$20mil. One of the schemes is based in Puente Alto, the other two in San Bernardo. The property sector only provides 8% of operational income for the firm but the division is a very active one in both Chile and Peru (where in ten years Besalco has built 3,000 homes). Its Peruvian activities provide 20% of Besalco profits.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
August 29, 2009

La Polar sets sights firmly on Colombia

The general director of La Polar, Pablo Alcalde states that of late the markets have misread the retail sector and he has persuasive arguments to offer, mainly contained on the Chilean chain's balance sheet profits for the department-store group grew 50% in the first semester, a better result than its better-known brethren Cencosud and Ripley. Aimed mainly at the social classes C3 and D, La Polar is at work on expansion into Colombia, where it plans to open six stores in the coming years. In Chile, it will open another six through 2010-2012 too, using the funds that will be raised in the capital increase La Polar had approved on Friday (of Peso$50bil). The plan is to buy stores in Colombia, sell them off and lease them back.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
August 29, 2009

Celulosa Arauco acquires Tafisa in Brazil

Celulosa Arauco, via its filial Placas do Parana, has paid US$165,2mil for the assets of the Brazilian reconstituted wood manufacturer Tafisa, owned by Sonae group that has a 640,000 m3 capacity at Parana state. Placas is also assuming debts of US$62mil, thus the acquisition would cost US$227mil. Charles Kimber, corporate matters manager with Arauco, says the move would enlarge the company share in the Brazilian market from 11% to around 22%. Arauco runs 605,000 m3 of MDF and should increase it to 1,2mil m3. As of Jan 2008 the Chilean Masisa has purchased 37% on Tafisa in a US$70mil deal, but its association with Sonae did not worked out and the stake went back to Sonae.

Chile: Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
August 29, 2009

HydroChile submits EIS for US$80mn hydro project

Chilean renewable power firm HydroChile submitted an EIS for the construction of a US$80mn hydro project in the Diguillín river valley in region VIII, according to documents filed with national environmental regulator Conama.

Pending approval, two run-of-the-river plants would be built 82km east of Chillán to add a total of 24MW of capacity to the central SIC grid.

The first part of the project dubbed Aguas Calientes, Central A, has a planned capacity of 13.5MW. Central B will add 10.5MW of capacity to the grid.

HydroChile expects to have the project operating by third quarter 2013, according to the documents.

Construction could begin in 2010, and HydroChile has held meetings with both local environmental authorities and residents.

The company earlier in the month submitted an EIS for the US$140mn, 50MW Río Puelche hydro project set for region VII.

In 2008, HydroChile submitted environmental studies to develop the 27MW El Paso plant and the 24MW San Andrés projects, both run-of-the-river plants planned for region VI.

The company is planning other projects and aims to inject around 250MW into the SIC by 2012, BNamericas previously reported.

Publication: Business News Americas - English News
Provider: Business News Americas
April 17, 2009

Grupo Claro analyzes selling share in logistics firms

Chilean investment group Grupo Claro has asked local brokerage and financial services firm Celfin to analyze the sale of the company's stake in the Urenda group, local paper El Mercurio reported.

The negotiations include Urenda's CCNI cargo handling firm, of which 13.0% is owned by Claro. The firms have not reached an agreement on the price of this operation, according to the report.

German bank HSH Nordbank is working with Claro to restructure the group's assets in the maritime sector. Celfin has been advising the group since February, studying alternatives for Claro's stake in Urenda's port logistics firm Agunsa as well.

Claro owns 26% of Agunsa through its company SAAM. The estimated price of this share is US$62mn, the report said.

Among the alternatives being analyzed are selling the stocks or incorporating a strategic partner.

According to the paper, the transaction is expected to go through before the end of H1. Sudamericana de Vapores (CSAV), also owned by Claro, declined to comment on the news.

On March 22, CSAV vice president Arturo Claro denied plans to sell SAAM in an interview with El Mercurio.

Publication: Business News Americas - English News
Provider: Business News Americas
March 27, 2009

Transelec projects USD 53.2m transmission line in Chile

Chilean power transmission company Transelec SA presented on Friday a USD 53.2 million (EUR 39.5m) project for a new transmission line.

The line will run between Transelec's Nogales and Polpaico substations in the central metropolitan region of Santiago and the neighbouring Valparaiso region. It will be a double-circuit 220 kV line, the idea being to transform it into a simple-circuit 500 kV line in the future.

The project is in line with the company's efforts to meet the growing electricity demand in Chile.

The construction is projected to start in June this year and to be completed in April 2010.

Transelec (www.transelec.cl) owns over 8,000 km of transmission lines throughout the country.

Publication: ADP News
Provider: AII Data Processing Ltd.
January 12, 2009