SANTIAGO, July 27 (Reuters) - Chile’s Pampa Calichera , one of the companies through which businessman Julio Ponce holds his ownership stake in lithium producer SQM , said it sold bonds in the local market on Friday for the equivalent of $275 million.
The bond had an annual interest rate of 4.5 percent and a duration of 15 years, Calichera said in a note to the market regulator.
SQM is one of the world’s largest producers of lithium, a key mineral for electric car batteries. Ponce, a former son-in-law of late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, was barred from decision making at the company as part of a contract with the government allowing the firm to boost lithium output. (Reporting by Felipe Iturrieta, Luc Cohen; editing by Grant McCool)