Americas

Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau will buy back $1bn of existing dollar bonds after receiving over $1.345bn of offers from bondholders to participate in a tender offer during the early-bird period, taking advantage of a strong cash position after asset sales and a recent local bond issue.

In this round-up, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to hold back from new tariffs for 90 days, Bloomberg received the green light from China Foreign Exchange Trade System (Cfets) to become the new trading platform for Bond Connect and CIBM Direct, and UBS obtained approval to acquire a majority share of onshore joint venture UBS Securities.

JP Morgan blew open the dollar market with the first big US bank trade in more than an month and its first since reporting third quarter earnings on October 12.

Baidu’s video streaming platform iQiyi has raised $650m after pricing its bigger convertible bond at the investor friendly end of guidance.

Santander Brasil has tested the country’s Letra Imobiliária Garantida (LIGs) covered bond regime with two privately placed deals.

After months of work to reach a trade deal, analysts say that the best one can hope for is a truce rather than an end to the confrontation. Meanwhile, China is tightening trade ties with potential allies as an antidote to a possible escalation.

In this round-up, Bond Connect has chosen Bloomberg to become its second electronic trading platform, the renminbi dropped one place in Swift’s payment rankings, and onshore banks are adding assets at decreasing speed.

Odebrecht Engenharia & Construçäo finally admitted defeat in its attempt to avoid default on Monday, as it acknowledged that it would not be making a $11.5m coupon payment due on its $519m of 4.375% 2025 bonds, paving the way for a restructuring.

Power generation and distribution company Nautilus Inkia is looking to give Latin America’s corporate bond markets one final burst of life in 2018, as it hits the road eyeing a 144A/Reg S senior unsecured offering.

Patience paid off for Peru on Thursday as its status as one of the safest economies in Latin America helped the sovereign to a new local currency benchmark that received strong interest from international investors.

US medical technology company Stryker had to wait longer than it planned for its debut in the European corporate bond market, but when the chance to launch the deal came on Tuesday, it achieved the hat-trick of tranches it was aiming for with an extra one added for good measure.

Four borrowers piled into the dollar bond market on Thursday, adding to one of the busiest weeks of the year despite tough market conditions. UK telecoms company BT led the charge with a $1.35bn two-part deal.