Americas

US territory the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has triggered a failure to pay credit event, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s Determination Committee has ruled after a week of deliberation.

Argentine infrastructure group Clisa (Compañía Latinoamericana de Infraestructura & Servicios) will buy back at least 80% of its 11.5% bonds due 2019 after receiving a strong response to a tender offer.

Citi on Friday announced a drop in earnings during the second quarter, with CEO Michael Corbat blaming heightened uncertainty in light of recent geopolitical events, even as the bank beat analyst estimates and reported higher trading revenue in fixed income.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce priced the first negative yielding non Eurozone covered bond and attracted a comfortably oversubscribed order book with a tiny new issue concession.

JP Morgan, fresh off the back of its projection-beating results, was the sole issuer in the European FIG senior market on Monday. The bank was sole bookrunner on its benchmark euro-denominated 7.5 year senior unsecured bond.

The Michael Bloomberg-led working group is seeking to establish a RMB clearing hub in the US. Michael Knorr, head of payments and liquidity risk management at Wells Fargo, and a member of the group’s operating model options subcommittee, gave GlobalRMB his views on the challenges ahead.

Lat Am bond bankers said that conditions continued to be supportive for most Argentine borrowers, although the contrasting fortunes of the deals in the market last week showed that investors were becoming more selective.

In this round-up, Singapore Exchange reports strong trading of RMB currency futures, China’s RMB cross-border trade settlement jumps and sales under Mutual Recognition of Funds (MRF) pass Rmb2bn in May. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB's coverage this week.

A trio of Argentine borrowers dismissed any worries about fading investor interest for the country’s issuers by raising a combined total of $950m on Thursday, although bankers said companies that could offer liquid deals would find the going much easier.

Uruguay reiterated the extremely favourable conditions available to Latin American investment-grade issuers after raising $1.147bn of bonds through a tap of its 2027s and 2050s on Wednesday.

Two high yield companies reminded bond markets that there’s life in Latin America outside of Argentina by selling dollar deals linked to liability management exercises this week.

Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex was expected to raise ¥80bn ($759m) of 10 year Samurai bonds on Friday morning Japan time in its first yen deal since 2008.