Argentina’s CePu Said to Hire Banks for $500 Million Bond Sale

(Bloomberg) -- Argentina’s largest privately owned power generator, Central Puerto SA, is planning a $500 million bond sale, hiring JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG for the deal, according to two people with knowledge of the plan.

Proceeds from the seven- to 10-year bond offering, expected by early October, will be used to back two generation projects, said the people, asking not to be identified as the deal is private.

Representatives from Central Puerto, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Central Puerto plans to invest about $180 million to install a wind farm in Patagones, the southernmost county of Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, and has submitted a bid at a government renewable auction, according to the people. The company is also seeking government permission to install an air-cooled gas turbine it acquired from General Electric Co., the people said.

The Buenos Aires-based company operates about 15 percent or 5.5 gigawatts of power generation capacity in Argentina, the third-largest market in Latin America behind Brazil and Mexico.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pablo Gonzalez in Buenos Aires at pgonzalez49@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nabila Ahmed at nahmed54@bloomberg.net, Kenneth Pringle