Cemex’s 13% Yields Lure Citigroup After Plunge: Mexico Credit

Cemex SAB’s bonds are yielding more than twice the average for Mexican corporate debt, prompting Citigroup Inc. and Barclays Plc to recommend buying the notes in a bet the company’s cement sales will weather the global economic slowdown.

Yields on Cemex’s dollar bonds due in 2016 soared 207 basis points in the past week, the most since the bonds were issued in December 2009, to 13.09 percent, according to data compiled Bloomberg data. The average yield on Mexican corporate debt rose one basis point in the same period to 6.31 percent, JPMorgan Chase & Co. data show. Borrowing costs for Latin American companies that share Cemex’s rating jumped 86 points as slowing U.S. growth sparked a sell-off.