Americas

Outrage at the destruction of the Amazon rainforest — which often involves dispossessing indigenous people — is common among capital markets executives. But few realise that their own firms are financing it.

Total Play Telecomunicaciones’ failure to appear in primary markets this week was less surprising to bond bankers than the fact that the Mexican telco had planned to sell a debut deal the week before the US elections, as equity volatility in that country made for a weaker tone in Latin American credit markets.

Boeing faced down turbulence on Thursday with a $4.9bn bond issue, after markets reacted to a spike in Covid-19 cases days ahead of the US presidential election.

Chile, the only Latin American sovereign to have issued a green bond, is weighing up different thematic bonds as it makes its funding plans for 2021.

Capital markets players have a variety of stances on the forthcoming US presidential election. A survey by UBS this week found 51% of wealthy US investors wanted Joe Biden to win, while 55% of business owners favoured Donald Trump.

The US presidential election is next week but, unlike the rest of the world, capital markets professionals are not rooting for Joe Biden or the incumbent, Donald Trump, to win. Instead, they just want a clear result that will spur issuance for the rest of the year. Sam Kerr, Mike Turner, Lewis McLellan, Mariam Meskin, Frank Jackman and Aidan Gregory report.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group, one of China’s largest private education companies, has kicked off bookbuilding for a Hong Kong secondary listing worth around $1.4bn.

Just one day before a likely hard default on its $150m of 7.875% 2024s, Argentina's City of Córdoba on Wednesday asked bondholders to modify the payment terms according to a plan that already has the backing of Chilean asset management firm Moneda.

Chinese data centre operator GDS Holdings has pocketed HK$12.9bn ($1.67bn) from its secondary offering on Hong Kong’s stock exchange.

Chile, which in 2019 became the first Latin America sovereign to issue a green bond, is weighing up different thematic bonds as it makes its funding plans for 2021, according to a senior funding official.

Eye-watering bond yields on Argentina’s recently restructured sovereign bonds indicate that investors have little faith in its economic plans. That will make it hard for issuers and investors to see eye-to-eye in the wave of provincial debt restructuring talks that has followed the sovereign's deal with bondholders.

An ESG think tank believes that the European Central Bank should drop Alberta’s euro bonds from its list of eligible marketable assets, as a punishment for its support for polluting industries. But while it is a laudable aim, it is not practicable.