Central America

Armando Tamez, CEO of Mexican car parts maker Nemak, told GlobalCapital that the company sees “great potential” in sustainability-linked bonds, adding that it would be “natural” for Nemak to continue to consider issuing SLBs in the future.

Mexican car parts maker Nemak sold its second sustainability-linked bond in a month on Wednesday, raising €500m in a deal that bankers said marked the company’s migration from high yield to investment grade covenants — though it has just one IG rating.

On Tuesday, Mexico sold its second international bond explicitly aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, printing the 15 year note at the same spread over mid-swaps at which it had sold a seven year SDG bond in September.

Mexican car parts maker Nemak began meetings with European investors on Monday as it looks to become the first Latin America borrower to sell sustainability-linked bonds in more than one currency.

Mexican car parts maker Nemak sold $500m of sustainability-linked bonds on Wednesday in its first issue since it was spun off from conglomerate Grupo Alfa. Nemak’s deal was priced 25bp inside a recent SLB from its similarly rated peer Metalsa.

Bondholders of Mexican payroll lender AlphaCredit are facing very low recoveries, say credit analysts, after the company failed to pay a $15m coupon payment due on June 19 on its senior secured 2022s.

Mexican car parts maker Nemak is looking to become the latest Latin American company to issue a sustainability-linked bond, having begun investor meetings on Monday. Like other LatAm SLB issuers from the sector, Nemak is including a coupon step-up linked to Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions — though the company has a separate target to reduce its far more significant Scope 3 emissions.

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) is working to develop a regional bond market that it hopes will broaden the investor base for Central America’s sovereigns, some of which have patchy access to global markets. Cabei’s CFO told GlobalCapital that the supranational will provide seed capital for a fund to participate in the market, which he believes could eventually attract foreign buyers.

Brazilian steel producer CSN and Mexican building materials company Cemex continued a storming week for Latin American high yield issuance with new deals that attracted bumper orders and priced tight to bankers’ expectations — even if comparable deals were not always clear cut.

Mexican building materials company Cemex is looking to sell a perpetual hybrid bond that it believes will help it towards its target of building an investment grade capital structure.

Grupo Axo, the Mexican fashion retailer, sold $325m of five year notes on its international bond market debut on Tuesday, tightening the price as bankers said Latin America bond markets were in a sweet spot for new issuance.

Grupo Axo, the Mexican fashion retailer, began investor calls on Monday ahead of a possible international bond debut that is being marketed just days after BlackRock made a $45m equity injection into the privately held company.