Americas

With the bond market monitoring Argentina’s progress in negotiating a deal with the IMF, the country’s economy ministry has promoted from within to replace its outgoing finance secretary.

Even after a hefty slump in its bond prices in recent weeks, investors are failing to see value in El Salvador as doubts grow around a much-needed IMF programme. Some believe there could be further downside - despite Bank of America taking a positive view on the country in a report that was enthusiastically publicised by president Nayibe Bukele.

The Province of Buenos Aires has extended the participation deadline for its proposed restructuring for the 21st time — dashing the hopes of some analysts who had thought the deal could be wrapped by the previous target of August 13, even though the issuer’s largest bondholder has backed the deal.

The Emerging Markets Investor Alliance, a non-profit comprising several major EM asset managers, will release “enhanced” principles for green, social, sustainable and sustainability-linked bonds on Thursday in response to what it sees as a “loss of confidence” in the labelled bond asset class.

Deutsche Bank has hired from ING to replace a recent departure in its Latin American debt capital markets team, and the German bank’s head of LatAm DCM told GlobalCapital that he hoped to build around the new hire.

Panama City airport Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen defied what bankers and investors had described as an unenthusiastic early-August bond market to attract a large book on a dual tranche deal on Thursday. Demand was sticky enough for the issuer to price $1.855bn of new debt inside guidance, enabling Tocumen to gain important liquidity relief.

Wells Fargo has informed staff in the US that it is delaying the reopening of its offices in the country as a result of rising Covid-19 cases.

Banks are seeing light at the end of the tunnel as they emerge from major cost cutting exercises at the same time as economies around the world begin to emerge, erratically, from pandemic restrictions. Now the question is whether there will be enough capital markets business to go around.

Moelis & Co supercharged its capital markets team last year just in time to take advantage of the booming market for special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs). But as the craze subsides, the team continues to expand, with the firm looking to generate repeat business from clients that appreciate its product-agnostic approach.

The impact of the allocation of new IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) on the most stressed developing economies could depend on whether a politically sensitive proposed reallocation of the assets from wealthier nations to vulnerable ones is successful. And though the new SDRs may reduce sovereign bond issuance, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, not all investors believe there will be a notable effect on EM debt.

Mining company Gran Colombia Gold Corp sold a senior unsecured $300m five year note on Wednesday, with bankers saying that the company had offered a pricing pick-up that could be attributed to the use of proceeds — to fund a new project in Guyana.

The US regulator’s demand for more disclosures from Chinese companies planning New York listings may be a death knell for the flow of IPOs between the two markets — but it could go a long way towards offering investors some much-needed transparency.