Americas

Mexico petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa on Monday issued a supplement to the offering memorandum on a distressed bond swap as it attempts to avoid default by persuading bondholders to push out the maturity on a $300m bond due in December.

CPPIB Capital hit the euro market on Monday, becoming the first SSA borrower not eligible for QE to access the market since the coronavirus outbreak shuttered the market. A fellow Canadian is set to follow suit.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have received the green lights from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to increase ownership in their Mainland joint ventures to 51%.

Emerging markets face at least $2.5tr of financing needs and do not possess the resources to fund themselves, said the IMF on Friday. But with bond markets continuing to improve and multilateral development banks increasing their firepower, prospects for EM funding are at least looking more promising than a week ago.

Standard Chartered will commit at least $1bn of financing for companies that provide goods and services that can be used to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Toronto Dominion Bank attracted a slightly larger order book for its three year dollar covered bond on Friday than Bank of Nova Scotia did for a similar deal issued on Wednesday. Both deals offered a considerable pick-up to where they would have been expected to be priced in euros, but the overall spread outlook remains a subject for hot debate. At the same time on Friday, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was set to issue a ‘blow out’ three year Swiss franc deal.

Unusual or less traditional ways of trading bonds — via electronic platforms and exchange-traded funds — look set to come out well from the recent market turmoil.

In this round-up, Chinese industrial profits recorded the steepest drop in a decade, US president Donald Trump praised China’s understanding of Covid-19 and Hong Kong bourse’s Charles Li said closing the market is not the solution to stem sell-offs.

For years, the best sovereign issuers in the emerging markets would boast that their latest bond deal showed how much the mystical “international financial community” supported the current administration’s macroeconomic management. And EM investors would pretend that buying the stuff was to have the map to Treasure Island.

Panama acted swiftly to capture crucial funds on Thursday, jumping on an improved market to raise $2.5bn of debt and giving a glimmer of hope to emerging market countries as fears were beginning to rise of a devastating funding squeeze for the developing nations just when they most need finance.

Distressed South American sovereign Ecuador faces a tall task to renegotiate its debt payment schedule in time to avoid a hard default, said market participants, after it delayed around $200m of coupons this week, taking advantage of a 30 day grace period.

After its long-awaited debt sustainability analysis disappointed many investors and analysts, Argentina’s desire to solve its debt restructuring quickly may buckle under the pressure of its attempts to mitigate the impact of Covid-19.