Usiminas to hit the road Tuesday

Brazilian flat steelmaker Usiminas is to go on the road September 23 in a bid to raise US$50mn on the European and US money markets, agency AE-Setorial reported. Usiminas president Rinaldo Campos Soares confirmed that the event is to run over three days to present its 18-month bonds to investors. The steelmaker will pay between 6.225% and 7.125% in annual interest on the issue, to be led by Brazil's third largest bank Unibanco. Soares says the expectation is that the resources will be used for working capital as part of a debt reduction strategy. The Belo Horizonte-based firm is hoping to cut its debts by US$300mn this year. Of the total debt, 46% corresponds to export and import financing, 21% is held with federal development bank BNDES, 5% consists of non-guaranteed domestic bonds while the remainder comes from a range of miscellaneous operations. Some months ago and with the objective of reducing the debt's cost, Usiminas issued its first Eurobonds. Demand was higher than expected which prompted an increase in the original offer of US$50mn to US$75mn, yielding 6.875%/y.