Americas

Recent hints from Ecuador’s finance minister Carlos de la Torre that the South American sovereign is considering a euro-denominated bond issue should be met with caution, according to a report from Quito-based Analytica Investments.

Three public sector borrowers hit screens in euros on Tuesday, taking advantage of a hot market to offer zero or limited new issue premiums.

After yet another quiet day in Latin American bond markets on Monday, syndicate bankers said that the return of new issuance after a more than two week hiatus would likely commence after two key speeches from Jay Powell, the new US Federal Reserve chair.

The European Union’s upcoming April 2033 euro benchmark may have to offer a little more premium than usual if it wants to match a similar trade from the European Investment Bank last week and attract strong French demand, said bankers away from the mandate. Other euro supply in the pipe includes CPPIB Capital — also with a 2033 issue — and Rentenbank in sevens.

TP ICAP, the inderdealer broker, on Monday revealed that it has promoted from within and made new hires for its institutional services division.

The US private placement market is welcoming more utility issuers, according to participants, after changes to the minimum eligibility threshold of the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Index.

International law firm Mayer Brown has hired eight lawyers from the New York and San Francisco offices of Morrison & Foerster, including capital markets partners Anna Pinedo and James Tanenbaum .

Bright Scholar Education Holdings is out with its first follow-on offering since its IPO last May, and is gunning for about $200m.

Sunlands Online Education Group is planning an up to $300m IPO of American Depository Shares (ADS), according to a draft prospectus submitted to the US regulator on February 23.

Colombia’s bonds have hardly moved in secondaries since Moody’s placed its Baa2 rating on negative outlook last week, although the sovereign’s debt had already widened heavily over the last few weeks.

The outlook for Canadian covered bond supply in euros is not as grim as it seems, despite the fact that the nation’s lenders have already issued three quarters of what they supplied in euros In 2017, the cross currency basis swap is not particularly compelling and senior unsecured funding is cheap in dollars.

Venezuela’s cryptocurrency plans were met with a dismissive reaction from Lat Am bond market participants this week, who questioned the value of any currency issued by the defaulting government.