Gafisa Soars on Report Alphaville Deal Imminent

Bloomberg 30 May 2013
Gafisa SA (GFSA3), the Brazilian homebuilder, rallied the most in two weeks as the newspaper Valor Economico reported that it may sell its Alphaville unit in early June. The shares jumped 3 percent to 4.10 reais at 3:19 p.m. in Sao Paulo after earlier rising as much as 4.8 percent, the biggest intraday gain since May 10. The stock was the best performer on the Ibovespa (IBOV), which sank 1.8 percent.
The Sao Paulo-based company will decide on Alphaville in the first half of June, Valor reported, citing a person it didn’t identify. The newspaper said a deal may value the company at about 2.1 billion reais ($996 million). Gafisa’s market capitalization is 1.8 billion reais, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“The main driver for Gafisa is that it may be getting favorable valuations for the possible Alphaville sale,” Javier Gayol, an analyst at Corporativo GBM SAB in Mexico City, said in a telephone interview. “It’s by far the best-performing asset in the business and understandably the one that’s most appealing. It would bring in the much-needed cash.”
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