Cemex announces Latam share offering, Colombia

Cemex said on Friday it plans to offer some 126.6 million common shares of its Cemex Latam Holdings unit to be listed in the Colombian stock market.

Cemex Latam Holdings includes Cemex's cement and ready-mix assets in Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

About 110.1 million shares will be put up for grabs in a public offering to investors in Colombia and in a concurrent private placement to eligible investors outside Colombia, Cemex said in a release.

Another 15.5 million shares will be offered in such private placement, subject to a 30-day put option granted to the initial purchasers of the private placement.

"Cemex Latam expects to apply the net proceeds of the offerings to the repayment of indebtedness owed to Cemex, who, in turn, expects to apply the net proceeds to it to general corporate purposes, including the repayment of indebtedness," the company said.

While Cemex said the timing of the deal would depend on market conditions, a preliminary offering calendar obtained by Reuters showed Cemex Latam Holdings could start trading by mid-November.