LatAm Bonds

Investors and bankers said that Petrobras had achieved exceptionally tight pricing on Wednesday as the oil and gas giant became the first Brazilian issuer to tap international bond markets in times of coronavirus amid a strong rally in corporate paper from the country.

Alantra is buffing its credit portfolio advisory team with the addition of Marcus Evans and Christos Stefanidis, who will join as managing directors in the UK and Greece. The credit portfolio advisory firm is also opening up offices in Latin America and China.

Rating agencies say that senior unsecured bondholders in Latam Airlines face bleak recovery prospects after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the largest airline in Latin America to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.

Argentina officially entered default for the ninth time on May 22 as the grace period expired on $503m of overdue coupon payments. However, there is increased optimism that the sovereign will reach an agreement with bondholders after the largest creditor group said “direct and immediate discussion” was required.

After nearly two months of persuasion, Mexican petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa received the approval of its bondholders to push out some $300m of international bonds by six years and give major relief to its liquidity situation.

Argentina is set to enter default on its international debt for the ninth time on Friday, but the sovereign curve performed well this week as investors and analysts say that creditors will continue negotiations well after the grace period on $503m of coupon payments expires.

Investors say that bond markets are wide open for many Brazilian companies, but even as access to credit has suddenly become a major topic for the country's corporate executives, most of the cash-rich companies they run are shying away from international markets and betting that they will be able to achieve better borrowing terms in the future than are on offer today.

Ecuador could take useful clues from Argentina’s debt restructuring, said analysts, as it prepares to present an offer to its bondholders having taken decisive economic measures in the past week.

Only in Argentina could a finance minister claim that default on billions of dollars of bonds constitutes merely an “anecdotal date”.

A supranational and a Nordic bank paid rare visits to the Swiss franc market this week. The North American Development Bank (NADB) printed its first deal in two years — its second green bond — while Nordea returned after a five year absence.

Isaac Deutsch, who led Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation's Americas specialized finance division between 2012 and 2018 before becoming the firm's deputy Americas CEO, is said to have departed from the bank earlier this week.

As bondholders eagerly await details of a rescue package from Brazilian development lender BNDES to the three largest airlines operating in the country, the strongest credit in the sector coming into the Covid-19 crisis is now the perceived as the weakest.