Central America

Mexico carried out its largest ever liability management exercise this week, refinancing more than $6.6bn of dollar bonds with new longer dated debt. But deputy finance minister Gabriel Yorio says that the sovereign will remain very active in international bond markets in the short term and is likely to be back in dollars early next year.

Mexican power generator FEL Energy, which sells 70% of its capacity to state-owned electric utility CFE, priced a debut bond deal on Wednesday as investors were unshaken by noise surrounding a different Mexican credit with a long-term agreement with a government-owned entity.

Guatemala’s head of public credit said on Wednesday that the Central American sovereign hoped to resolve in the “next two days” a dispute with Florida-based Teco Energy that has caused its fiscal agent in New York to freeze a coupon payment due at the start of this month.

Guatemala is locked in a legal fight with Florida-based Teco Energy that public credit director Rosa María Ortega said in a motion to a New York District Court endangered the Central American sovereign’s “perfect” bond repayment record.

Mexico will hold a virtual non-deal roadshow with Japanese investors next week, according to Gabriel Yorio, Mexico’s deputy finance minister.

Latin America DCM bankers’ promises that a sovereign would jump on recent market positivity materialised on Monday as Mexico turned to international bond funding for the fifth time this year with a heavily oversubscribed liability management exercise that totalled $6.625bn, once switch-tenders were included.

Mexican power generator FEL Energy is the most recent Latin American credit to announce bond issuance plans but bankers covering the region expect several drive-by trades this week before the US Thanksgiving holiday cuts the window short next week.

Latin American bond bankers said that Mexican telecoms company Total Play Comunicaciones’ debut bond issue on Monday — the second Mexican high yield deal since the onset of Covid-19 — was an encouraging sign for other issuers from the country.

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) said it became the first multilateral lender to sell a Covid-19 “vaccine bond” after raising $50m of five-year money to support immunisation initiatives when Covid-19 vaccine becomes available.

Latin American bond bankers said that B2/BB- rated Mexican telecoms company Total Play Comunicaciones was the ideal name to take advantage of a swell of risk appetite on Monday as the company sold its first ever international bond in a market that favoured higher yielding credits amid the sell-off in US Treasuries. But Lat Am sovereigns could be back as soon as Tuesday as bankers expect a wave of issuance from the region.

Spreads on Latin American bonds tightened sharply during US election vote counts on Wednesday in a promising — if only preliminary — sign for potential issuance conditions after the result is declared.

Bond markets in Latin America were quiet on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s US election. But the Mexican peso, and bonds issued by state-owned oil giant Pemex, could be most vulnerable to a surprise or uncertain result given they are two of the most liquid assets in EM.