Masisa Tumbles as Top Market Venezuela Devalues Currency
(Bloomberg) Masisa SA, a Chilean wood panels manufacturer that gets a quarter of its revenue from Venezuela, tumbled the most in three months on speculation that a devaluation of the country’s currency will crimp profits.
Masisa fell 3.3 percent to 54.5 pesos at 1:33 p.m. in Santiago trading after earlier falling as much as 4.2 percent in the biggest intraday loss since Oct. 19. It was the biggest decliner today on the Chile 65 stock-market index, which tracks the country’s largest companies based on an adjusted measure of market value.
Venezuela’s finance minister said Feb. 8 the government would weaken the official exchange rate by 32 percent to 6.3 bolivars per dollar. The country accounted for 25 percent of Santiago-based Masisa’s revenue during the first nine months of 2012, according to regulatory filings.
“They will have a lot of revenue in bolivars and to bring that back in dollars will cost more,” Jose Manuel Edwards, an analyst at Santiago-based broker IM Trust SA, said in a telephone interview.
Masisa operates 38 Placacentro construction-material stores in Venezuela, according to the company’s website. Masisa also has an industrial facility and owns 84,800 hectares of forests in the country.
