IEnova OKs cap increase, global stock offer

Mexican energy infrastructure firm IEnova, a unit of U.S.-based Sempra Energy, said its shareholders approved a capital increase of up to 330 million shares at a preferential price of 10 pesos a share worth US$200 million, which could be issued in a global stock offer.

An eventual public offer will be available in Mexico and abroad, with an over-allotment amount equivalent to 15 percent of the shares issued in the offer, the company said in a filing to the stock exchange late on Tuesday.

At the current price of the company's shares on the Mexican stock exchange, 330 million shares are worth about 23.5 billion pesos, or US$1.42 billion.

The company did not say why it was raising capital, but an analyst note from brokerage firm Intercam suggested that funds could go toward paying for IEnova's US$1.325 billion purchase of a stake in the pipeline company Gasoductos de Chihuahua owned by Mexican state-run oil company Pemex.