Central America

Mexico petrochemical company Alpek could announce a new 10 year note as soon as Thursday, and investors expect the issuer to receive strong demand amid a quiet Latin America primary market.

Mexican petrochemicals producer Alpek, which lost one of its investment grade ratings for the first time last September, was holding calls with fixed income investors this week ahead of a proposed liability management exercise that would push its average debt maturity from 4.4 years to seven years.

Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca’s bonds fell sharply in secondary markets this week after the company missed a coupon payment on its international bonds. But the decision to stay current on, and prepay, a domestic bond left some bondholders recalling previous battles with Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Mexico’s third richest man and the owner of the broadcaster.

TV Azteca, the broadcaster owned by Mexico’s third richest man Ricardo Salinas Pliego, missed a coupon payment on a $400m bond on Tuesday, leaving some concerned about the implications for other Grupo Salinas-controlled bond issuers.

A highly diversified order book allowed the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) to tighten pricing on its first ever benchmark social bond on Wednesday, with the multilateral lender raising $500m of five-year money.

Mexican quasi-sovereign Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) offered little to no concession on its first 144A/Reg S deal since 2016 on Tuesday, attracting a broad range of investors to an order book that peaked above $10bn.

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) is holding investor calls until Tuesday as it looks to sell a debut social bond in dollars.

Mexican financing and leasing company Unifin Financiera returned to bond markets on Monday for the first time in 18 months, garnering sufficient demand to push the yield on its new $400m eight year into single digits.

Credit Suisse has tapped a rival bank to fill a spot on its emerging markets syndicate desk in New York, GlobalCapital understands.

Guatemala’s largest lender, Banco Industrial, returned to international bond markets on Friday after more than eight years away with a tier two deal that was more than three times oversubscribed.

Mexican non-bank lender Unifin Financiera is planning an eight year bond issue of up to $500m, with up to $200m set to come via an exchange offer for existing bonds. But bondholders participating in the exchange are unlikely to receive much by way of increased returns for pushing out their maturities.

Debt capital markets bankers covering Latin America continue to be impressed by the pace and variety of new issuance in January, with Guatemalan lender Banco Industrial the latest to join the primary pipeline.