The National Highway Company (ENA in Spanish) has issued certificates on the stock exchange in order to raise funds for the South Corridor for the company ICA.
Using debt bonds, with one series placed on the international market and another in the local market, the ENA was able to raise $225 million in the local market at a rate of 5.25% and $170 million in the international market at 5.75%.
Panamanian government bonds sank as much as 5.25% yesterday, after a failed attempt by a state-owned fund to sell $760 million.
The Fiduciary Fund for Development, an important buyer of Panamanian debt, tried to sell up to $760 million worth of sovereign bonds. This triggered a drop in prices, as investors grew concerned that a major source of demand would be removed. The Panamanian entity finally decided no to proceed with the sale.
The hydroelectric sector in Panama is a boiling pot where scores of projects are cooked, garnished with failures and speculation.
Eighty-nine concession requests are pending, 43 projects have had permissions denied or canceled by the developers and another 31 projects are in different phases of design or construction. Of the $2.3 billion that all these tentative projects represent, it is most likely that only half will be eventually realized.