Frigorifico Concepcion SA, a South American meatpacker, intends to borrow up to $125 million from investors this year to boost exports, according to director Jorge Usandivaras.

Usandivaras anticipates closing the working capital facility by the end of August. It is being structured by Bank of America Corp. and Oppenheimer & Co. and is likely to be a $75 million to $100 million loan with a promissory note. In a recent interview from the company’s headquarters in Asuncion, Paraguay, he also revealed that Frigorifico Concepcion is getting ready to issue its first local currency bond in Brazil for the equivalent of $25 million as early as the fourth quarter.  

After selling bonds for $461 million since 2020, Usandivaras hopes to return to the US debt markets the following year.

Regarding the desire from investors for dollar bonds in 2023, he remarked, “We don’t see the liquidity yet to issue bonds out of Paraguay.”

In 1997, Jair Antonio de Lima, a Brazilian businessman, founded Frigorifico Concepcion, which today exports to more than 70 nations from its 13 plants in Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. After a flurry of acquisitions and the building of new plants, the company anticipates revenue of around $1.5 billion this year. Sales nearly doubled in just four years to reach $1.1 billion in 2022.

By the end of 2023, Usandivaras predicted, the corporation will be able to use its plants’ total capacity to about 80% of their potential.

According to director Renan de Lima, whose family owns the business, the majority of the extra production will be sold in Asian markets like China and Taiwan.

If it can access the local finance markets and locate properties that aren’t overvalued, Usandivaras said Frigorifico Concepcion will think about expanding its meat processing capacity in Brazil as early as 2025. 

Many struggling mid-sized meatpackers exist in the nation, and Frigorifico Concepcion believes they could be candidates for a turnaround under long-term leases with an option to purchase at the end of the period, De Lima continued.

According to him, the typical monthly capacity of the plants they are looking for is between 15,000 and 25,000 head of cattle.