Central America

Central American sovereign Costa Rica left some analysts wondering where they would find value in the market after tightening pricing well inside pre-deal expectations.

Mexican retailer Grupo Famsa has pushed out the early-bird deadline on a distressed debt exchange, saying it wants to give bondholders more time to analyse its proposal.

Market participants expect Costa Rica will have little trouble completing a crucial bond issuance next week, with the lack of high yielding sovereign assets in Latin America expected to favour a country that has worked to improve its outlook this year.

Latin American bond market participants away from Costa Rica’s proposed $1.5bn cross-border issue said they thought the deal would find strong demand as the Central American nation announced a roadshow amid friendly market conditions on Tuesday.

Mexican retailer Grupo Famsa is looking to gain some breathing room with an exchange to push out a looming bond maturity. Yet though Standard & Poor’s and Fitch both consider this a “distressed” deal, only Fitch is planning to cut the borrower’s rating to default.

Central American development bank Cabei sold its first green bond in the public markets on Thursday, increasing the size of its five year floating rate note from $300m to $375m after attracting nearly $1bn of orders.

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) has hired two banks as green structuring advisers and bookrunners as it plans its first dollar benchmark bond for seven years and first green bond in dollars.

Central American development bank Cabei will look to issue its first public green bond in around two weeks as it attempts to enter the universe of true SSA borrowers with a first dollar benchmark in seven years.

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Latin American debt capital markets bankers say that the continued absence of Mexican retail and beverages conglomerate Femsa in primary markets could indicate lower risk appetite among investors as the year comes to a close.

Mexican payroll lender Crédito Real brought Latin American high yield corporate issuance back to the European bond markets for the first time in five years last week, in a deal that fed euro buyers’ hunger for new names.

Moody’s upgraded the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) from A1 to Aa3 on Wednesday, paving the way for the multilateral lender to approach traditional dollar SSA investors.