Small investors have bought $15 million in shares ranging from $1,000 to $20,000, from a trust that will finance a wind project in Uruguay. Another $62 million will be offered to institutional investors.
EDITORIAL
The offer received in the Uruguayan Securities Exchange from small investors reached $100 million, a clear sign of the high interest in the prospective investment which has a mitigated risk as it is a project by a strong state run enterprise, with a return almost assured, estimated at about 11.5% a year, in the 20 years which is the term of the share certificate.
With the reform to the law on Tax Concentration non-resident investors in the country will have to pay 15% instead of 10% on income earned from capital.
According to Juan Sebastian Chamorro, executive director of the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development, the new reform "... is a positive thing for the country because it will generate an increase in the collection of such taxes but is a negative blow to natural and legal non residents because the Revenue Department will no longer deduct 10% on capital transfers, but rather 15 %. "
Banco Popular in Costa Rica plans to register bond issues in the financial markets of El Salvador, Panama and Nicaragua.
Pension funds in El Salvador and institutional investors in Nicaragua are the target for Banco Popular from Costa Rica, who plans to start three programs of issuances of debt worth $50 million.
Gerardo Abarca, financial manager of the company , told Elfinancierocr.com: "We want to internationalize the bank in terms of fundraising. We had a good experience in Panama, an already well consolidated market. We expect to leverage these new places a niche of investors with an appetite for terms of over one year. In Costa Rica , investments in accounts as well as on the National Stock Exchange, are still very short, with terms of six months to one year.
Rumors are that the U.S. Federal Reserve is preparing to reduce its bond purchase program, motivating the sale of bonds in emerging markets.
"A rise in bond yields in developed markets and a better prognosis for the U.S. economy are making bonds from the emerging countries, from Turkey to Chile, seem less attractive. On Friday, currencies, bonds and shares in these markets fell significantly," noted an article in Wsj.com.
Due to the slow progress of the Chinese economy and the possible sale of reserves by Cyprus, the price of gold closed at $1,361.1, its lowest level since 2011.
"At the end of the first session of the week, at the Mercantile Exchange in New York, the most traded contracts for gold, due in June, lost $140.3 an ounce (a drop not seen in three decades) to end up at their lowest level since February 2011," noted an article in Laprensa.com.ni.
The Central Bank of Nicaragua has revealed its monetary and financial report for December 2012.
Financial System:
In the month of December the SFN ‘s process of normalization of liquidity continued, which was reflected in the ratio of availability to deposits of 28.1 percent, partly linked to the pace of credit growth which was around 30 percent. Meanwhile, deposits showed a growth of 5.5 percent.
From January 2013 financial institutions outside the U.S. will have to report on the accounts of citizens from that country, for tax purposes.
An analysis of the issue in an article in Capital.com focuses on Panama and risk management, but can be extrapolated to the entire Central American region.
“January 1 2013 will see the start of registration of agreements for compliance with FATCA for all entities in the financial sector, including insurance companies, brokerage houses, banks, credit unions and mutual funds that have U.S. customers, who must act accordingly. '
There is still uncertainty among U.S. citizens and companies abroad, regarding the effects of this law’s extraterritorial reach.
The start of registration stipulated by FATCA law (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) of the United States is January 1st, 2013, with enforcement beginning on 1st July of that year. However, many questions remain in several sectors such as insurance, securities and pensions, and even the regulators don’t have a clear idea of the effects of the law.
Financial companies must provide reports about their clients who are United States citizens under penalty of withholding 30% of the transfers that they make from that country.
The measure, which will apply from July 2013, is a consequence of the Law on Foreign Account Tax Compliance (FATCA), which requires foreign banks to sign an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and report this to their customers, U.S.