This week, Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. (CX) started a global public offering of 1,200 million Ordinary Participation Certificates (CPO), directly or in form of American Depositary Shares (ADS). The world’s third-largest cement producer has also given underwriters to offer up to an additional 180 million CPOs, directly or in the form of ADSs, to cover overallotments.

The offering includes 595 million CPOs that will be sold on Cemex’s behalf by three of its subsidiaries. Of the 1,200 million CPOs being offered, 900 million CPOs are expected to be offered in the United States and in other countries outside Mexico. Approximately 300 million CPOs will be offered in a concurrent public offering in Mexico. The deal is subject to market and other conditions. The company is likely to offer the CPOs on Sept. 23.

Cemex plans to use the proceeds to repay debt, which will be crucial in the

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Last week, CEMEX Mexico and CEMEX Concretos, subsidiaries of cement producer CEMEX S.A. de C.V. (CX), announced a two-year MXN$2.2 billion (US$160 billion) trade receivable securitization facility.

The proceeds will be used for investment in the upcoming quarters. A trust at HSBC Mexico funded the transaction by issuing receivables-backed bonds maturing on Dec 29, 2011.

The bonds are priced at a spread of 250bps over the 28-day TIIE interbank rate and the issuance was oversubscribed 1.3 times. S&P and HR Ratings assigned a rating of "mxAAA" and "HRAAA", respectively.

The transaction does not increase debt for the company as it is financing of receivables on a non-recourse basis. This should be an effective working capital management cost for the company.

CEMEX has huge exposure to the U.S., Spanish and British construction businesses; countries that are experiencing a difficult moment in its real estate cycle at present. In fact, prolonged downturns in the

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On Wednesday, customs authorities of Dominican Republic imposed a fine of US$ 32,000 on Mexican cement maker Cemex S.A. de C.V. (CX). They believe that the company is attempting a tax-evasion scheme for acquiring 640 tons of petroleum coke from Generadora Itabo, an electricity producer in Dominican Republic.

The company also faces other problems. Recently, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit against Cemex for $558 million as royalty payments owed in the United States.

The company had drawn upon substantially big short-term loans to buy Australia’s Rinker in 2007, just before the U.S. housing crisis and the subsequent global financial disaster. It needs to repay $4.1 billion of debt by the end of 2009 and the remaining in 2010 and 2011. To stay afloat, Cemex is refinancing $14.5 billion of debt.

A steady fall in aggregate demand and employment in the U.S. is adversely impacting economic activities

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The state of Texas recently filed a lawsuit against Cemex (CX) for $558 million in royalty payments the Mexican cement maker owed in the United States. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson alleged that the company had been mining a quarry near El Paso without paying royalties to the state's Permanent School Fund that owns the site. CX defended itself by saying that raw materials like aggregates, limestone and other rocks were not subject to royalties.

Although the suit is not legally correct and lacks merit, it is a matter of concern for the debt-ridden company. Cemex had drawn big short-term loans to buy Australia's Rinker in 2007 just before the U.S. housing crisis and the subsequent global financial disaster. It needs to repay $4.1 billion of debt by the end of the year and the remaining amount in 2010 and 2011. It is refinancing $14.5 billion in debt

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We have been saying since the end of 2008 that emerging markets in general -- and Latin American in particular -- would outperform more developed markets such as the U.S., Europe and Japan. Indeed it has been our mantra in the past few months. Now this view has become the consensus, and Brazil seems to be one of the more interesting places for equity investments.The so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have been outperforming the market. Through June 10, 2009, according to The Economist, Brazil is up 70.5%, Russia is up 77.5%, China is up 65.9% and India is up 65.3% (all in U.S. dollar terms). In the same period, the Emerging Markets MSCI was up 39.2%, World MSCI was up just 10.3% and the S&P 500 just 4%.It seems that the decoupling theory that was so criticized recently is back and stronger ...

We have been saying since the end of 2008 that emerging markets in general -- and Latin American in particular -- would outperform more developed markets such as the U.S., Europe and Japan. Indeed it has been our mantra in the past few months. Now this view has become the consensus, and Brazil seems to be one of the more interesting places for equity investments.The so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have been outperforming the market. Through June 10, 2009, according to The Economist, Brazil is up 70.5%, Russia is up 77.5%, China is up 65.9% and India is up 65.3% (all in U.S. dollar terms). In the same period, the Emerging Markets MSCI was up 39.2%, World MSCI was up just 10.3% and the S&P 500 just 4%.It seems that the decoupling theory that was so criticized recently is back and stronger ...

Cemex SAB (CX) jumped more than 8% at noon on heavy volume to trade near its 200-day moving average of $10.81. The Mexican cement maker's shares have rallied since reports revealed on Tuesday that the company could soon reach a deal with creditors for refinancing its debt burden. Late in April, Cemex reported breakeven results for the first quarter, while analysts had expected a loss of 2 cents per share. Cemex is a Zacks#2 Rank ("Buy") stock.

"CX" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

Even with the hype of a possible flu pandemic, the markets managed to remain positive through the week. Mexico will take the lead as we make the next critical move next week.

As a guy that has spent way too much time in rough water, I absolutely detest the clichéd phrase “a perfect storm,” but when it is apt I cannot help but use it. So here goes. This week has been a perfect storm for Mexican investors.  It physically hurt to write that sentence.

As if a bloody and growing drug war was not enough, Mother Nature threw Mexico a deadly flu outbreak and a 6.0 earthquake earlier this week. It was enough to force investors to flee back across the border.

Hard hit were the country’s pig producers like Smithfield Foods (NYSE:SFD), its cement makers like Cemex (NYSE:CX) and of course, its airports like Pacific Airport

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The initial first-quarter GDP reported was greeted with a great amount of fanfare, despite a terrible headline number. Though the economy contracted at a 6.1% pace - marking the first time we have booked back to back quarters of down 6% or more since the end of WWII - some of the details in the report showed reasons for optimism.

As an investor, I realize that you are less concerned with the details that economists seemingly over-analyze and more concerned with what the report means to your portfolio. So, today, I'm going to show you where some of the investment opportunities and risks lie in the current environment.

Consumers Opened Their Wallets

The biggest positive surprise in the report was that Personal Consumption Expenditures ("PCE") actually contributed 1.50 points to GDP.

Clearly, in the first quarter, consumers took advantage of discounted

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March 14, 2009 - The markets got a reprieve this week, despite the fact that the negative economic data kept streaming in. The catalyst for stocks came from the financial services industry where Citigroup said it earned a profit in the first two months of 2009, and Bank of America was reportedly regaining some footing. As a result, the DJIA gained 9% on the week, the Nasdaq gained 10.6% and the Samp;P gained 10.7%. This is good news, but major concerns persist. Unemployment data continued to show that more Americans are losing jobs and expectations are that this trend will continue at least through the first half of 2009. A direct consequence of job losses is that consumer spending is going to continue to taper off. The US economy has come to be so dependent on consumer spending that this is going to have materially negative impact on GDP. To ...