Americas

Consorcio Transmantaro, the Peruvian transmission company and one of the few Latin American issuers to have improved its credit profile this year, is turning to bond markets for the first time since April 2019 to finance investments.

Banco Hipotecario, the Argentine bank focussed on mortgage and consumer loans, is asking holders of a dollar bond maturing in less than three months to swap their paper for a new 2025 bond and cash. If bondholders do not accept the terms, default is likely, says Moody’s.

Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer began investor calls on Tuesday as it prepares its first new issue since several ratings downgrades earlier in the year.

Equity investors should be nervous about US tech valuations as the fabled FAANG (named for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) stocks look extremely expensive after reaping in the cash during the equity rally that followed the initial Covid-19 sell-off. With valuations at near-preposterous levels and the macro-economic environment worsening with rising Covid-19 cases and a bitter election around the corner, market moves down last week could be a sign of worrying times ahead.

Singapore-based special purpose acquisition company (Spac) Aspirational Consumer Lifestyle Corp is looking to raise $225m from a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

At least 12 Argentine provinces are either deep in restructuring talks with bondholders or are preparing to begin negotiations. But as Argentina’s finance minister Martín Guzmán calls for regional governments to renegotiate their debts in line with the federal government’s sustainability guidelines, investors are unlikely to grant the same level of debt relief they agreed with the sovereign.

Argentina’s foreign law exchange bonds will go free to trade this week and offer early clues as to how markets are likely to value the newly restructured credit, after some promising but inconsistent signs emerged from grey market trading last week.

German real estate company Vonovia priced a €1bn accelerated capital raise on Thursday to take advantage of possible growth opportunities arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The deal was covered quickly and attracted enough demand to cover the transaction several times but execution was made complicated by a sell-off in US tech stocks on Thursday evening.

Yum China, the Mainland-based fast food franchise operator, was eyeing at least HK$17.3bn ($2.2bn) in fresh equity on Friday after giving investors some price guidance for its secondary listing in Hong Kong.

The summer slowdown finally arrived in the US corporate bond market this week, with just a handful of issuers showing up before September's season truly begins — bringing what is expected to be a bumper crop of deals.

An IMF agreement that surpassed all expectations triggered a rally in Ecuador’s exchange bonds after they went free to trade this week, although analysts warn that February’s presidential election represents a major event risk.

Market observers believe that investors in open-ended debt funds need to be disincentivised more than they are at present from scrambling to liquidate their holdings in a market downturn.