Americas

BBVA is the latest large European bank to have suffered a ratings downgrade during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Fitch having moved the issuer’s debt ratings down by a notch blaming a weaker operating environment in Mexico and Spain.

VTR Finance, the Chilean subsidiary of telecoms group Liberty Latin America, is marketing a dual-tranche refinancing that is likely to be distributed to both EM and dedicated high yield bond buyers and will shift debt towards the operating company.

Trinidad and Tobago tapped bond markets for the first time for four years on Monday with a deal that its finance minister claimed “achieved what our detractors said was impossible”.

Mexican conglomerate Fomento Económico Mexicano (Femsa) turned to international bond markets for the third time this year20 on Monday, clinching its tightest dollar funding of the year despite wider spreads.

Bankers said that Uruguay could provide a stern test of risk appetite if it decides to announce a new bond issue in local currency, after the sovereign began investor calls saying it could issue in dollars and/or Uruguayan pesos.

Agora is looking to raise up to $315m from its Nasdaq IPO, having begun bookbuilding for the deal.

US investment managers GMO and Greylock will again unite to begin negotiations with Belize after the government said on Wednesday it wanted to delay all bond payments until February.

Peru's largest commercial lender Banco de Crédito del Perú (BCP) will begin fixed income investor calls on Monday as it contemplates a tier two capital bond issue, just two weeks after parent company Credicorp issued a debut $500m senior deal.

Investors appeared to be more sensitive of price movements in new issues of covered bonds this week, with valuations in the asset class having returned to within touching distance of their January levels.

Online casino gaming company DoubleDown Interactive has set the terms for its Nasdaq IPO, preparing the first South Korean listing on a US bourse in nearly a decade.

Central American sovereign Honduras marked a new milestone for EM bond markets in the coronavirus era this week as it became the lowest-rated issuer from Latin America to issue during the crisis. Oliver West reports.

The possibility of Argentina’s debt negotiations ending up in court drew closer on Wednesday night, as the positions of the largest group of bondholders and the government appeared to be irreconcilable.