Central America

The chief financial officer of Banco Santander México told GlobalCapital that the lender had decided to get ahead of a possible surge in demand for credit by issuing the largest ever bond by a Mexican bank on Tuesday.

The CFO of Banco Santander Mexico told GlobalCapital that the lender had decided to get ahead of a possible surge in demand for credit by issuing the largest ever bond by a Mexican bank on Tuesday. But DCM and syndicate bankers worry that most Latin American issuers are not taking advantage of strong markets to shore up cash positions with the full impact of the Covid-19 crisis still unknown.

Banco Santander Mexico showed that emerging market investors are willing to deploy cash in a greater range of credits than just sovereigns as it sharply increased the size of a five-year senior deal on Tuesday. But though the new issue concession was in line with expectations, the deal underscored the new reality of funding conditions for Latin America borrowers.

Banco Santander Mexico is hoping to become the first Latin American company to issue internationally in six weeks on Tuesday after speaking to investors on Monday about a potential senior unsecured trade.

Mexican petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa is giving bondholders more time to participate in a distressed debt exchange, saying that the “current environment” had hindered the ability of the bonds’ "custodians" to tender.

As investors single out Mexico’s response to Covid-19 as one of the least convincing in Latin America, Fitch threw government-owned oil company Pemex and its $80bn of bonds deeper into sub-investment grade territory on Friday.

EM bond bankers were feeling relieved after a better day for global markets on Thursday, as they said some of the asset class’s best issuers were lining up deals hoping to clinch much-needed funding.

Bond market participants in Latin America are gradually accepting that Zoom video calls will become a permanent feature of their job. However, in this particularly travel-intensive segment of capital markets, when it comes to selling a product, neither issuers nor bankers appear willing to cut down visits to clients in a region where personal trust is arguably more important than anywhere else.

Mexico petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa on Monday issued a supplement to the offering memorandum on a distressed bond swap as it attempts to avoid default by persuading bondholders to push out the maturity on a $300m bond due in December.

Latin America bonds may not be immune to the generalised improvement in tone in credit markets this week, but that secondary markets remains dysfunctional and a return to primary market action could be some way away.

Development lender the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) raised $170m-equivalent of three year money on Tuesday after heading to the Mexican bond market, where investors see the bank as a haven credit, the bank’s CFO told GlobalCapital.

Mexican petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa is offering bondholders a collateral package and higher coupon to participate in a bond exchange that would allow it to avoid default later this year.