Americas

Frontera Energy on Thursday became the latest Latin America oil and gas company to take advantage of strong oil prices to tap bond markets, with the company — which operates mostly in Colombia — increasing the size of a five year deal and attracting a broad range of investors.

Brazilian airline Azul on Thursday sold the first triple-C rated new issue from Latin America since the coronavirus pandemic began, pricing a five year bond inside guidance to as investors swarm all over the region’s riskier credits.

The nascent sustainability-linked bond (SLB) faced a big test this week with deals from the oil, power and steel sectors, and most notably from Brazil meat processor, JBS. But if the enthusiastic reception to the deals suggested the market passed with flying colours, there were calls for more scrutiny of the relevance of KPIs if the SLB label is to mean anything. Oliver West reports.

Dollar corporate bond issuers enjoyed tight pricing this week, as investors devoured a serving of deals that was smaller than expected.

Latin American supranational Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) has become the first borrower from the region to sell paper linked to Sofr.

Habeck returns to syndicate at SMBC — Deutsche appoints co-heads of Americas ECM — JPM sends levfin bankers to US — Elfring lured out of retirement — Barclays hires CLO syndicator — Eagle Point snags head corporate trader

A trio of foreign banks tapped an attractive Swiss market this week, finding opportunities to top up their well-advanced funding programmes with a bit of pricing arbitrage.

Former Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley banker Dolph Habeck has landed a senior syndicate role at SMBC Nikko in New York, following his recent spell at Greensill Capital.

Light, the fifth largest energy distributor in Brazil, began investor calls on Wednesday ahead of a proposed five year non-call three deal that it will use to redeem its only international bond. The company joins a long line-up of LatAm companies preparing to issue, with the strong pipeline likely to translate into new supply as soon as Thursday.

Deutsche Bank has promoted two bankers from within to lead its Americas equity capital markets business.

UP Fintech Holding's follow-on offering in the US drew a 10 times oversubscribed book, as its fintech credentials and online operations proved appealing to investors.

Bankers working on Brazilian meatpacker JBS’s $1bn sustainability-linked bond on Tuesday said that ESG funds had been responsible for some of the largest orders in the controversial company’s deal, as corporate borrowers in some of the least green sectors join the ESG debt carnival.