Americas

Cemex is back in the bond market after a year and a half’s absence, opening books on a senior secured bond in euros.

Chilean power generation company AES Gener is looking to take advantage of favourable market conditions and cut its funding costs by issuing a new subordinated note to refinance a similar instrument.

High yield bond issuance in Europe is perking up, with several deals being marketed or just about to be launched. Beginning its roadshow on Monday was Sappi, the South African paper company, which wants to issue €450m to replace an older bond; starting on Tuesday is French car parts group Faurecia, seeking €500m.

Pepsico took one of its rare sips at the euro bond market on Monday, and was rewarded with two bonds, seen as priced flat to and through its curve. After the European corporate bond market was clouded by weak secondary trading last week, it was back on form on Monday.

In this round-up, both exports and imports slowed in February, the US and China have not started preparing for a deal-signing summit and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has released its February financial data.

The operator of Ecuador’s largest airport finally raised the bond market funding it was seeking on Friday, eventually increasing the size of the deal by $50m as some investors were attracted to a rarely seen yield.

Central American development bank Cabei will return to US bond markets for the first time since 2012 after a better than expected two notch upgrade from S&P left it keen to enter the realm of true SSAs, said its CFO. But the issuer will be doing so without Fitch, after deciding the rating agency’s methodology did not reflect its new business model.

In this round-up, Huawei filed a lawsuit against the US government, China’s foreign reserves rose for the fourth month, and the International Monetary Fund can now invest in Chinese domestic bonds and stocks

Some EM bond investors were hopeful that Friday would see the concessionaire operating Quito’s new airport break a hiatus of more than three weeks in Latin American new issues, despite not pricing as scheduled on Thursday.

Government-owned Costa Rican lender Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR) is looking to buy back a portion of its shortest-dated international bond.

Caribbean cable company Digicel returned to the bond markets on Thursday with a senior secured bond deal that allows it to repay funds drawn down on its revolving credit facility, as well as its bank term loan A.

Markets have rallied in Europe and the US so far this year across equities and credit, but participants are feeling gloomy about the prospects for investment banks' revenues in the forthcoming first quarter results.