/raid1/www/Hosts/bankrupt/TCRLA_Public/010329.mbx        T R O U B L E D   C O M P A N Y   R E P O R T E R

                   L A T I N   A M E R I C A

            Thursday, March 29, 2001, Vol. 2, Issue 62

                           Headlines


A R G E N T I N A

MASSERA: Vauquita Calls In Creditors


B R A Z I L

BANESPA: BSCH Makes Adjustments On Credit Portfolio Accounting
CESP: Government To Announce New Auction Date, Minimum Price


C H I L E

ENAMI: Officially Registers US$140M Bond Issue


M E X I C O

ALO.COM: Denies Reports About Temporary Suspension Of Operations
CINTRA: Runway Closure Costs Aeromexico, Mexicana $400k Daily
TAESA: Azteca Vows No Link With Defunct Carrier


P A R A G U A Y

ANTELCO: No Clear Value Yet




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A R G E N T I N A
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MASSERA: Vauquita Calls In Creditors
------------------------------------
Vauquita, a unit of Massera located in Trenque Lauquen in Buenos
Aires province, called in the creditors, according to South
American Business Information Tuesday. The small sweets and ice
cream manufacturer, which currently has a debt of around US$3
million - US$4 million, processes just 3,000 liters of milk
daily.

Massera, an ice cream shop chain, announced bankruptcy in
September of last year. The Vidal family owned the company prior
to its sale to Massera in 1996. The company's majority
shareholders are the Argentinean businessmen Miguel Mattera and
Ricardo Miyazono with 77 percent of the capital, while the other
23 percent is owned by J. P. Morgan. In 1998, the new owners
changed the production process of Vauquita, causing a 20-30
percent drop in annual sales. J. P. Morgan is suing Massera's
majority shareholders because, a year after investing US$20
million for its part of the business, the company called in the
creditors with a US$57-million debt. Massera's creditors include
a group of banks headed by Scotiabank, HSBC, Citibank, Bansud and
Velox.



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B R A Z I L
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BANESPA: BSCH Makes Adjustments On Credit Portfolio Accounting
--------------------------------------------------------------
Spanish group Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH), which
acquired Brazilian bank Banespa in November of last year, has
adjusted Banespa's credit portfolio accounting, South American
Business Information reported Tuesday. The adjustment meant a
reduction of loans rated as AA, A and B from R$4.14 billion in
June 2000 to R$1.526 billion in December. The newly acquired
bank's overall portfolio fell from R$5.622 billion to R$5.545
billion over the period. However, loans rated as C and D rose
from R$349.2 million to R$3.161 billion between June and December
2000. G risk loans saw an increase of 674.3 percent over the
period, to R$216.9 million, while loans rated H (100 percent
allowances) fell 38.9 percent, to R$547.5 million. Banespa
accumulated losses of R$2.410 billion during 2000.

Several analysts earlier expressed doubts over BSCH's ever seeing
a healthy return on its investment when it paid nearly four times
the minimum bid price of US$940 million for the acquisition of
Banespa.


CESP: Government To Announce New Auction Date, Minimum Price
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Sao Paulo government is expected to announce the new auction
date and minimum price soon for power generator Companhia
Energetica de Sao Paulo (Cesp), Brazil Financial Wire revealed
Tuesday. However, sources familiar with the transaction predict
that the new auction is likely to take place in mid-May.

The state's privatization council, known as PED, met with
consultancy companies Fator/Ernest Young and UBS Warburg earlier
this week to analyze new sale proposals. Andr, Franco Montoro
Jr., the state's planning secretary and PED president, revealed
that a few adjustments have been made and that proposals would be
submitted shortly to governor Geraldo Alckmin.

According to Montoro, a 10-percent reduction in the price is
likely, which in December (the time when the first attempt to
sell Cesp collapsed due to a lack of bidders) stood at R$1.73
billion.

Cesp, in a previous TCR-LA report, posted net losses of R$414.30
million for year 2000.



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C H I L E
=========

ENAMI: Officially Registers US$140M Bond Issue
----------------------------------------------
In an effort to resolve its short-term debt problems, Chile's
state minerals processing company announced official registration
US$140-million bond issue with regulatory authorities, Business
News Americas reported Tuesday.

The bonds, which are to be issued on the Santiago Stock Exchange
in 5-million-peso denominated index-linked units, will be for six
years with a three-year grace period and will yield a real 6.3
percent annually. An unnamed source at Bank of America, which is
handling the placement, earlier said that the company aims to
issue the bonds by the end of this month.

Enami, which is currently restructuring US$465 million in debts,
posted a loss of US$29.3 million in 2000, up from US$24.3 million
in the previous year.



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M E X I C O
===========

ALO.COM: Denies Reports About Temporary Suspension Of Operations
----------------------------------------------------------------
Pedro Portilla White, vice president for marketing and
development at the Mexican horizontal web portal and media
content production company Alo.com, contradicted recent reports
that the web portal had temporarily suspended operations at its
web portal. In a Reforma/Infolatina report released Tuesday,
Portilla White said that the firm had not and would not abandon
the Internet to become solely a production company for the
traditional media. However, he did say the company plans to
diversify its revenue stream by producing multi-format content,
due to the fact that advertising revenue generated by its portal
has not grown as rapidly as expected.

"Alo.com is a multimedia production company, and from the
beginning the plan was not to limit it to Internet, but to go
beyond and have the capacity to produce multi-format content,
that is, content that can be used in various formats and by
various media," Portilla White said.

Additionally, he also denied that Internet business senior
executive Alejandro Reynoso had left the company.


CINTRA: Runway Closure Costs Aeromexico, Mexicana $400k Daily
--------------------------------------------------------------
The recent closure of an airport runway at Mexico City's
international airport, resulting in ticket cancellations and
additional fuel consumption, has been costing an estimated
$400,000 dollars daily to each of the leading Mexican carriers
Aeromexico and Mexicana, Reforma/Infolatina said Tuesday. The
runway was closed for maintenance on March 19, and will remain
closed until April 5. The airport's other runway is also
scheduled to be closed for maintenance in May. The airport serves
approximately 60,000 passengers per day and handles 800 flight
operations every 24 hours.

Both carriers, Aeromexico and Mexicana, are controlled by
government-owned airline holding company Cintra, which the
Mexican bailout institution IPAB has slated to go on the auction
block this July. However, the two carriers, will be sold
separately from other companies under Cintra's umbrella. IPAB
expects to reap about US$1.4 billion from the forthcoming
transaction.


TAESA: Azteca Vows No Link With Defunct Carrier
-----------------------------------------------
The new Mexican airline Lineas Aereas Azteca insisted that it had
no connection with the collapsed TAESA, the country's third-
largest carrier before it went bankrupt due to safety and
financial problems. However, in a South American Business
Information report Tuesday, Azteca admitted it acquired TAESA
installations and equipment from the insolvency department of
Banobras for 115 million pesos as well as running TAESA routes
with ex-TAESA employees.

Azteca vowed not to set off a tariff war as its operations from
and to Tijuana with six planes that cost US$180 million get
underway. The company plans to trade publicly on the Mexican
stock exchange, acknowledging that initially its prices will be
set at around 12.5 percent below comparable market rates. The
Grupo Azteca will operate the airlines Operadora de Lineas
Ejecutivas (executive aviation) and Transportadora Aerea de
Pasajeros (for charter services) as well as Aviorent, a plane
rental firm.



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P A R A G U A Y
===============

ANTELCO: No Clear Value Yet
---------------------------
The forthcoming privatization of the Paraguayan
telecommunications company Antelco has spurred several opinions
regarding the real value of the business, South American Business
Information said Tuesday. Market speculation suggests that
Antelco's intervenor Oscar Stark had the company valued at US$600
million, although Stark denied the figure, halving it closer to
US$300 million. In 1997, the World Bank also made evaluations of
the company, setting a price for its assets at US$229 million,
according a multiple of cash flow. These estimates, updated to
current figures, would put the value at US$250 million to US$270
million.

Previously, TCR-LA reported that Stark made a suggestion that the
Paraguayan state operator be privatized before the end of the
year. According to him, the sell-off process should take place on
the 28th of September.




S U B S C R I P T I O N   I N F O R M A T I O N

Troubled Company Reporter Latin American is a daily newsletter
co-published by Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc., Trenton, NJ,
and Beard Group, Inc., Washington, DC. John D. Resnick, Edem
Psamathe P. Alfeche and Janice Mendoza, Editors.

Copyright 2001.  All rights reserved.  ISSN 1529-2746.

This material is copyrighted and any commercial use, resale or
publication in any form (including e-mail forwarding, electronic
re-mailing and photocopying) is strictly prohibited without prior
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Information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to
be reliable, but is not guaranteed.

The TCR Latin America subscription rate is $575 per half-year,
delivered via e-mail.  Additional e-mail subscriptions for
members of the same firm for the term of the initial subscription
or balance thereof are $25 each.  For subscription information,
contact Christopher Beard at 301/951-6400.


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