Slim’s Ideal Seeks $785 Million in Debt Sweetened With Toll Cash

Ideal (IDEALB1), the construction-financing firm controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, aims to raise as much as 10 billion pesos ($785 million) through a debt instrument that will also give investors cash from toll roads.

The structured notes, which would pay a fixed rate, would be used to raise money for new projects, the company told analysts on a conference call last week. In addition to the interest, investors would get a percentage of the residual cash flow from four toll roads operated by Ideal, whose name stands for Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina SAB.

The funding would position Slim’s company to take advantage when President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government begins accepting bids for new infrastructure development over the next year. The toll-road money will give investors an equity-like vehicle to invest in Ideal, which has put aside for now a plan to issue more stock to improve the liquidity of its shares.

Ideal shares rose less than 1 percent to 28.30 pesos yesterday in Mexico City, where it’s based. The shares have gained 19 percent this year, while the benchmark IPC index has risen less than 1 percent.

The company will file the paperwork for the structured notes with Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission in the next four to six weeks, so the details of the plans could change. A company official declined to comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in New York at tharrison5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net