Americas

Unigel, the Brazilian petrochemicals company, has set initial price thoughts on a planned inaugural international bond two months after it aborted a first attempt.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch dropped its issuance forecast for this year by $20bn on Monday, in the middle of what is usually the busiest month in the primary market calendar for US high yield bonds.

CME Group on Monday launched two new indices to calculate the price of ether, the second most popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin by market capitalisation.

GlobalCapital is pleased to announce the winners for this year’s Americas Derivatives Awards. The results were announced at a gala dinner at the Metropolitan Club in New York on Thursday. The awards honour the firms and innovations that have pushed the derivatives market forward over the last 12 months.

BMW Finance had to negotiate its way through a busy corporate bond market on Monday as it sold a €1.75bn 4.5 and eight year dual tranche offering. It had to pay new issue premiums of around 8bp-10bp but saw strong demand.

Two A-rated corporates went head to head in the euro corporate bond market on Monday as UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and US electrical systems manufacturer United Technologies Corp both launched triple-tranche deals, with two matching maturities, which totalled €4.5bn.

Texan chemicals group Kraton opened up the European high yield deal pipeline this week with a debut deal that will help refinance a dollar bond. The firm is also topping up a US loan as it looks to cut its borrowing costs.

Colombia’s highest rated issuer, Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), is in danger of a downgrade after troubles in the construction of its planned Ituango hydroelectric plant, the largest infrastructure project in the country.

Taiwan-based M17 Entertainment, a web streaming platform, has filed for a $115m IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

Huya, a live streaming platform backed by YY and Tencent, has raised $180m after pricing its US IPO at the top of guidance.

No Latin America companies issued and just one announced bond plans this week as an EM currency slump sent shivers through the market, but investors said the market was far from shut.

Argentinian president Mauricio Macri’s politically bold but economically astute move to approach the IMF for financing lifted bond prices on Thursday, but markets are continuing to digest a shock period of volatility that has caused drastic reassessments of emerging market debt’s standout story in recent years. Olly West reports.