Americas

A favourable move in the basis swap allowed the Province of Quebec to return to the Swiss franc market after seven years away this week, landing its latest bond at a spread flat to its domestic curve.

GlobalCapital is delighted to announce the winners of its Americas Derivatives Awards for 2021.

Kanzhun, China’s largest online recruitment platform, is planning a $100m listing of American depository shares on the Nasdaq.

Chile, Peru and Colombia — previously hailed by EM investors for orthodox economic policymaking — are under pressure amid social unrest and political polarisation. But as the upheaval whirls around them, their credit in the bank with bondholders, after years of impressive debt management, is a major asset.

A majority of shareholders of Peruvian mining company Compañía de Minas Buenaventura have approved a motion to allow the company to sell up to $550m of bonds as it looks to finance a retroactive tax liability.

Grupo Axo, the Mexican fashion retailer, began investor calls on Monday ahead of a possible international bond debut that is being marketed just days after BlackRock made a $45m equity injection into the privately held company.

AMTD Digital, the digital unit of Hong Kong-based AMTD Group, has set in motion a $100m IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

Political volatility continues to take its toll on the credit ratings of Latin America’s strongest sovereigns, with Peru the latest to suffer a negative outlook as Moody’s predicted the next government will likely face a continuation of the political gridlock that has hampered economic activity over the last four years.

UnitedHealth Group finally sealed its $7bn merger and acquisition-related bond deal after a week-long delay, but it was stung by secondary market volatility as inflation fears remained top of investor minds.

Dollar corporate bond issuers had to pick their windows carefully this week, as inflation worries and hawkish minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting hit new issue spreads.

Official and multilateral lenders are taking a lenient stance on perennial defaulter Argentina but bond investors are increasingly sceptical whether the IMF programme that the sovereign says it wants will turn its fiscal position around. Markets are pricing in another default within a few years, despite a rebound in bonds this week, while eccentric policy decisions continue to frustrate bondholders.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase’s $1.25bn foray into the convertible bond market this week may be a sign of cryptos going mainstream. But the sight of such a borrower raising vanilla equity capital was not necessarily something to cheer about.