Deals highlight HSBC's advantages
Published: 19 November 2010
Firm becomes largest drugstore chain in Latin America
Recent deals in Mexico have demonstrated the many advantages of working with HSBC, according to Karen Mauch, Director of Structured Finance, Commercial Banking, Mexico.
The Latin American team was recently involved in advisory, financing, acquisition and foreign exchange aspects when Mexican consumer products distributor Grupo Casa Saba bought the Chilean pharmacy chain Farmacias Ahumada, better known as Fasa.
Casa Saba, which has dual listings on the Mexican and the New York stock exchanges, is the leader in the distribution of pharmaceutical, health, beauty and consumer products in Mexico.
"It was one of the larger deals in the Mexican market and a really good example of HSBC using its global platform," Ms Mauch said.
It was a wonderful transaction and showed what we can do in Latin America
"The brilliant team beat out the competition and they did a great job. It was a wonderful transaction and showed what we can do in Latin America."
HSBC was lead adviser for the USD637 million deal, which resulted in Saba becoming the largest distributor of pharmaceutical products and the leading drugstore chain in Latin America.
Before the all-cash acquisition, Fasa was the largest pharmacy operator in Latin America, with a regional presence through more than 1,200 pharmacies located in Chile, Mexico and Peru.
It allowed us to cross-sell a significant amount of HSBC products
Hernan Rissola, managing director, Advisory, for Global Banking in Latin America, said the transaction "created a lot of visibility in the region, introduced our advisory capacity and showed we can lead a process from start to finish".
“It allowed us to cross-sell a significant amount of HSBC products, FX hedging as well as cash management – all sorts of products were involved, including USD80 million in Private Banking,” Mr Rissola said,
HSBC acted as sole underwriter for the USD450 million acquisition bridge facility and follow-on term loan and as sole foreign exchange hedge provider for the deal, which was completed at the end of September.
The Casa Saba deal was one of several significant transactions HSBC has carried out in Mexico in recent months – America Movil and Grupo Bimbo bond offerings among them, as well as Arca’s acquisition of Ecuador Bottling Company.
Hernan Rissola
Hernan Rissola is Head of Latin America Advisory
He joined HSBC in 2009 from Merrill Lynch, where he spent the last nine years working in the Mergers and Acquisitions group advising clients across several industries.
Prior to working for Merrill Lynch, Mr Rissola worked at Credit Suisse in New York. He has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Business and as an undergraduate studied in Argentina and Austria.
Karen Mauch
Head of CMB Structured Finance, Mexico
Karen Mauch joined HSBC in 2005 to increase lending and mitigate risks within the Commercial Bank. Since then, she has created a team to execute complex transactions and develop new financing structures in the Mexican middle market.
Ms Mauch has extensive experience in international corporate finance within capital markets, financial advisory, corporate planning and financial re-engineering. Before joining HSBC, she served in several financial institutions including Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, Bankers Trust, and First Interstate Bank, among others. She is fluent in Spanish and English.
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