MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Leading Mexican housing developer Geo expects to grow revenues this year and borrow $200 million abroad to improve its debt profile, vice president Miguel Gomez Mont said on Tuesday.
"We're thinking of 18 or 20 percent," Gomez Mont said in an interview at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Mexico City, referring to growth in sales and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).
Geo (GEOB.MX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), one of the leading builders in Mexico's booming housing industry, also plans to issue $200 million in debt this year via a 10- or 12-year bond, a perpetual bond, or a syndicated credit to pay off local short-term debt.
Gomez Mont also said a campaign to cut costs was being extended across the company, from construction sites to offices.
"At Geo we use 208 kinds of stationery and that's going to be lowered to 30. It's a small detail and it has to be done," he said.
Geo and competitors such as Homex (HOMEX.MX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Ara (ARA.MX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have built millions of homes across Mexico in recent years amid a boom sparked by falling interest rates, increased economic stability and strong backing from President Vicente Fox, whose term ends this year.
They specialize in putting up neighborhoods of hundreds or thousands of houses that sell for under $20,000 each.
Gomez Mont was responsible for listing Geo, with revenues of 3.2 billion pesos ($293 million) in the fourth quarter of last year, on the Mexican stock market in 1994.
For now, the company has no immediate plan to launch an American Depositary Receipt to attract more attention from international investors, mostly because of costs, he said. Continued...
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