SANTO DOMINGO.- Dominican companies will sell at least $60 million in bonds on the nation’s stock exchange in coming weeks as the global credit crisis forces them to seek local financing, the bourse’s Chief Executive Officer Darys Estrella Mordan said, quoted by bloomberg.com.

“Industrias Nacionales C por A, a building materials producer, known as Inca, said in a statement that it placed $30 million of 30-month bonds on the exchange today. Multiquimica Dominicana SA, a local manufacturer of raw materials for the paint industry, also plans to sell $30 million of bonds, Estrella said in an interview for the Bloomberg in New York,” although she declined to name two other companies that also intends to sell debt.

It said borrowers are turning to the local exchange after trading surged to 43 billion pesos ($1.2 billion) in 2008 from 15.4 billion pesos in 2007, helped by demand from domestic pension funds, and international financing dried up, she said. The number of companies with securities on the exchange grew to 18 from five in 2007.

“This crisis, believe it or not, has been an opportunity for us,” the Dominican Bourse director said, adding that “quite a few companies are now in the pipeline to issue bonds in the next few weeks.”

Estrella, quoting Central Bank figures, said Dominican Republic’s economic growth slowed to 5.3 percent last year from an average 9.5 percent the previous three years. “Even as tourism revenue falls, remittances “continue to be strong” and foreign direct investment “continues to come in,” she said in the Bloomberg report.

“While the exchange only trades fixed-income securities, companies have seeking information for possible share sales,” Estrella said, and expects the first initial public offering on the bourse to take place in 2010 or 2011.

“We plan to continue to work really hard to see our first IPO in the not the very far future,” Estrella said. “There is no reason, given the strength of local core business and overall market liquidity that we won’t continue in the same path of new issuances and potential IPOs.”

Bloomberg, quoting the Dominican exchange director, said negotiations are also taking place with markets in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras to allow brokers in the region to do cross-border trades, through the project Estrella said will probably begin next year.