Chile

Primary bond markets in Latin America and CEEMEA finally took some rest this week after a busier than usual December, but bankers covering both regions expect emerging markets borrowers to be fast out of the blocks in January as EM credit looks continued to benefit from low rates.

Only a small number of holders of Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile’s (Codelco) bonds agreed to participate in the first stage of a tender offer the government-owned copper producer will finance using proceeds from a recent bond issue.

As year-end approaches and investors look for a breather, Latin America’s regular issuers usually spend December preparing for the traditional January funding round. But two of the region’s most prolific borrowers could not resist the historically low funding costs on offer this week, tapping existing bonds to buy back shorter-dated paper.

Latin American power generation company EnfraGen debuted in the international bond markets on Wednesday, benefiting from the strong performance from the region’s last power sector issue to price inside where some investors were expecting — despite a leverage ratio of nine times.

Chilean government-owned copper producer Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Chile) became the latest Latin American borrower to take advantage of rock-bottom bond yields to refinance existing debt at historically low yields.

Chile increased its first social bond on Thursday, returning to the Euroclearable peso market for the first time in 18 months with a deal that bankers said had higher international participation than expected.

Chile will look to sell $1.8bn-equivalent of Euroclearable, peso-denominated domestic law bonds to local and international investors on Thursday, according to the finance ministry.

Chile published its first sustainable bond framework on Wednesday, saying it wanted to build on the last year’s green bond issues to further diversify its investor base.

Chile, the only Latin American sovereign to have issued a green bond, is weighing up different thematic bonds as it makes its funding plans for 2021.

Chile, which in 2019 became the first Latin America sovereign to issue a green bond, is weighing up different thematic bonds as it makes its funding plans for 2021, according to a senior funding official.

Chile's sovereign dollar bonds hardly budged in Monday trading despite its electorate voting to change the country's constitution the night before. But analysts believe uncertainty along the road to a new political agreement could harm investment, and the new constitution will likely drive up government spending.

Chilean copper mining company Antofagasta, the longest continuously listed company on the London Stock Exchange, clinched its first international bond on Thursday as Latin American bond markets continued their recovery from recent wobbles.