Brazil's Hypermarcas stock sale raises $402.8 mln
SAO PAULO, July 14 (Reuters) - Brazilian consumer goods company Hypermarcas SA (HYPE3.SA) said late on Tuesday it and a group of controlling shareholders raised 793.5 million reais ($402.8 million) from a stock offering.
Hypermarcas said it sold 24.5 million new shares at 23 reais each, raising 563.5 million reais. The company said in the prospectus of the offering it plans to use all proceeds from the primary share sale to fund the acquisition of companies involved in personal hygiene, beauty and cleaning products, food and medicine.
Shareholders including private equity firm GP Investimentos (GPIV11.SA) and members of the Samaja family that sold drugmaker Farmasa to Hypermarcas last year, sold another 10 million shares in a secondary offering at the same price of 23 reais, raising 230 million reais.
Hypermarcas, which competes with huge multinational groups such as Unilever Plc (ULVR.L) and Procter& Gamble Co (PG.N), Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Sanofi-Aventis SA (SASY.PA), had 1.78 billion reais in gross sales in 2008 and posted losses of 207.9 million reais last year.
($1=1.97 reais) (Reporting by Elzio Barreto; editing by Andre Grenon)
