Americas

UBS has hired an experienced DCM banker from a bulge bracket house to lead its Latin American bond efforts as the Swiss bank enjoys its highest league table position in the region for nearly a decade.

Brazilian low cost airline Gol has finally ceded ground to bondholders in its debt restructuring negotiations, sweetening their incentives to participate in a deal.

OpenDoor Trading has re-engaged the services former chief operating officer, Chris Ferreri, as a member of its advisory board, just months after he left the firm to join a broker.

China announced plans to expand its currency marketplace overseas this month with branches set to be open in London and New York. Market participants say this is all part of the renminbi internationalisation effort and is the first step to further liberalising the CNY foreign exchange market.

Fitch gave Brazilian telco Oi yet another downgrade on Friday after the company, which has nearly $15bn of debt, revealed that it had not responded to a restructuring proposal from bondholders.

More than three quarters of Brazilian industrial conglomerate Cosan’s bondholders agreed to sell their bonds in the early bird phase of a tender offer.

In this round-up, South Korea’s RMB deposits drop to near-zero, South African rand starts direct trading with RMB, and BlackRock launches its first US-listed physical A-shares fund. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB’s coverage this week.

Argentine province Salta paused bond plans this week because of Brexit uncertainty. Don’t expect it to wait long though: overall, global market pain is Argentina’s gain.

The UK’s possible exit from the European Union is not the only factor to blame for two Latin American borrowers deciding to wait to issue bonds this week, said bankers covering the region.

The decision from the Argentine province of Salta to wait a few days before returning to bond markets this week (see separate story) did nothing to dampen bankers’ enthusiasm for Argentina as three more borrowers joined the new issue pipeline.

Panic around the rising likelihood of the UK choosing to leave the European Union in a referendum on June 23 sent European and US markets into turmoil this week, with volatility jumping as traders struggled to prepare for the two possible outcomes.

The dollar market ended its record-breaking run of issuance this week as uncertainty around the outcome of the UK referendum vote caused buyers to take flight and spreads to widen.