Morales & Besa advised BTG Pactual, Itau BBA and LarrainVial in the opening of SMU

Morales & Besa successfully advised BTG Pactual, Itau BBA and LarrainVial in SMU’s inititial public offering, which opened about 25% of its property through the placement of 1,150,000,000 shares, becoming the largest IPO in Chile Since 2013. The operation, which consolidates the efficient financial and operational management of the company, had a demand higher than 6 times the total number of shares offered.

The transaction included a public offering in Chile through the Santiago Stock Exchange and an international offering to qualified institutional buyers in the United States and certain investors outside the United States and Chile. It should be noted that 14% of the total bid was awarded to foreign investors under the Reg-S modality and 25% of the total bid was awarded to the controlling shareholders of the company. The approximate amount of the operation was US$200 million.

SMU is the largest food retailer in Chile, according to the number of stores, and the third largest by income. SMU operates its business through 4 formats: supermarkets (Unimarc), wholesale stores (Wholesale 10 and Alvi), convenience stores (OK Market) and an Internet shop (Telemarketing). As of September 2016, 511 stores were operating in all 15 regions of Chile, including 295 supermarkets, 100 wholesale stores and 116 convenience stores, and 24 cash stores in Peru.

The Morales & Besa team that participated in the operation was led by partners Guillermo Morales and Matías Langevin with associates Andrea Díaz, Vicente Valdés, María José Rojas and Javiera Veloso.