Americas

BRF, the Brazilian food conglomerate, has confirmed that it is considering London for an IPO of its halal food business, although a final decision has not been made.

Petrobras has opened books on the first non-Asian emerging markets bond of the year, and is marketing a four-tranche dollar bond.

Fast growing Argentine energy company Pampa Energía will begin investor meetings on Tuesday as it plans a much anticipated debut bond sale to refinance loans used to purchase Petrobras’ Argentine operations last year.

Dominican airport operator Aerodom’s move to use most of the proceeds from its upcoming debt issue to buy back existing bonds is credit positive, according to Standard & Poor’s.

The dollar covered bond market is in good shape, and it seems likely that issuers will want to follow the success of Bank of Montreal which last Wednesday issued the first benchmark of the year at a cheaper cost and in larger size than its previous deal issued six month ago.

Six Latin American issuers announced plans to meet investors within two days this week as bankers said that there was no time like the present for the region’s borrowers to carry out funding plans.

Venezuela’s surprise issuance of $5bn of 20 year bonds in a private placement sold this week to state-owned Banco de Venezuela had no obvious explanation, said bond market participants.

Pulp and paper producer Fibria Celulose is looking to become the second Brazilian company in the sector to issue green bonds after mandating five banks to manage an investor roadshow.

Citi became the first US bank to hit the market in 2017 amid a torrent of Yankee issuance, as it took home $5.25bn in two separate trades to power a record start to the year for dollar supply.

Timothy Massad, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has resigned, with J Christopher Giancarlo widely expected to take up the job, fuelling hopes of a more flexible, market friendly approach to regulation.

Auto makers led from the front as corporate US dollar issuance this week got off to its best ever start to the year.

European financials have found every reason to get into the dollar market early in 2017, leading to a fireworks display of total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) senior deals this week. Though market conditions could not have been better to receive the banks, many will have wanted to squirrel away quantities of funding and capital for what could be another troublesome year in the capital markets.