Endesa's Colombian Unit Emgesa Sells COP265 Billion In Local Bonds

Emgesa SA, the Colombian power generation company controlled by Spanish energy giant Endesa SA (ELE.MC), sold as much as 265 billion Colombian pesos ($104 million) worth of bonds in the local market on Wednesday, the Colombian stock exchange said in a statement.

Emgesa originally planned to sell COP180 billion worth of bonds though it raised the amount sold as demand was COP633 billion, much more than the amount offered, the statement said.

The new bonds will mature in five, ten and 15 years.

Emgesa will pay the DTF benchmark rate plus a spread of 1.47 percentage points on the COP49 billion worth of five-year bonds.

The DTF is a weighted average of the rates paid by Colombian financial institutions on 90-day certificates of deposit.

The company will pay the consumer price index rate plus 5.78 percentage points on the COP160 billion worth of 10-year bonds and consumer price index rate plus a spread of 6.09 percentage points on COP56 billion worth of the 15-year bonds.

The three spreads are lower than the maximum the company was ready to pay.

Citivalores, the local brokerage of Citigroup (C), handled the bond sale.

Several Colombian companies have tapped the local capital market with bond sales since late November 2008, taking advantage of pension funds and banks' high liquidity.

-By Inti Landauro, Dow Jones Newswires; 571-6107044 Ext 1131; [e-mail]