Americas

Political volatility might finally be biting in Peru, with Fitch putting the country's rating on negative outlook.

A group of bondholders holding more than half of the Argentine province of Córdoba’s international bonds took just one day to yet again reject the issuer’s attempt to amend terms on $1.67bn of bonds. As the countdown to default begins, creditors called for discussions “rooted in the realities of the province’s financial position and outlook”.

Cellectis, the French gene-editing company, has launched a $100m US capital raising to help fund its research and development operations. The sector has had a record year for issuance in 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic has concentrated minds on global healthcare innovation.

Only a small number of holders of Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile’s (Codelco) bonds agreed to participate in the first stage of a tender offer the government-owned copper producer will finance using proceeds from a recent bond issue.

Costa Rica’s finance ministry said on Monday that it planned to begin discussions over a new $1.75bn IMF programme in the second week of January. But though an agreement would likely drive a rally in the sovereign’s bonds, Fitch Ratings warned it would not remove debt sustainability pressures.

Banco de la República (BanRep), the central bank of Colombia, has elected a former board member as its next governor, in a move unlikely to signal any major changes in the bank’s policy.

Jose Andrés Olivares Canchari, director general of Peru’s public treasury, is to leave his role this week for personal reasons, GlobalCapital understands.

This week in Keeping Tabs: the former governor of the Bank of England on value and values, The New Republic on law and value, reminiscing about the last crisis, and a pub snack en vogue.

Nio has launched a US follow-on offering that could raise up to $2.71bn, becoming the third Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker to tap the equity market in less than two weeks.

With returns on developed market bonds being squeezed as never before, debt analysts are heralding emerging markets as the place for investors to be in 2021. Yet the faster the global economic recovery, the more vulnerable EM fixed income will be to what has often been its downfall: any signal of tighter global liquidity conditions, write Mariam Meskin and Oliver West.

As year-end approaches and investors look for a breather, Latin America’s regular issuers usually spend December preparing for the traditional January funding round. But two of the region’s most prolific borrowers could not resist the historically low funding costs on offer this week, tapping existing bonds to buy back shorter-dated paper.

CVS Health Corp jumped at the opportunity to conduct a liability management exercise this week, as US corporate bond issuance began to tail off amid signs of investor caution in the run-up to the year’s end.