LatAm Bonds

Moody´s slashed Bolivia’s credit rating from Ba3 to B1 and placed its outlook on negative as it warned of a “material erosion” of the landlocked country’s fiscal and foreign exchange reserve buffers in recent years.

The Inter-American Development Bank officially postponed its Annual Meeting from March until early September on Tuesday, confirming what many potential attendees had expected.

Bond syndicate bankers covering Latin America were not ruling out a return of new issuance in the next two weeks as the market tone improved on Tuesday after a bleak Monday. But with fears around negative fund flows growing, it may be hard to persuade investors to put cash to work even if valuations look attractive.

On what some EM investors described as the worst day for markets since 2008, Latin American bond buyers were left staring at a sea of red as the region’s fixed income markets were stunned into dysfunction by the sharpest fall in oil prices since 1991.

The Province of Buenos Aires said on Monday that it had hired Bank of America and Citi to advise it on its debt restructuring.

Mexican hotel operator Grupo Posadas became the first Latin American issuer to suffer a ratings action as a direct result of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, with both tourism industry and capital markets conditions worsening while a bond maturity looms.

Even as yields in Latin America’s top-rated credits reach all-time lows amid a US Treasury rally, volatility will likely prove too tricky for most of the region’s issuers to navigate primary markets in the short term, said bankers.

Holders of Argentine sovereign bonds have until March 16 to identify themselves to the issuers as the government prepares to restructure $67bn of foreign law sovereign bonds.

Mexican non-bank lender AlphaCredit has launched a consent solicitation, as it seeks to make amendments to the indenture governing its 2022 notes.

Mexico’s state-owned electric company Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) turned to Taiwan’s bond market this week to sell a dollar bond — its latest foray into the Formosa bond market.

Chilean power generator Colbún saw its new 10 year bond rocket on the break as Latin American credit was driven tighter by a rally in global markets.

Mexico state-owned utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) returned to the Formosa market for the fourth time on Wednesday, clinching its largest trade yet in Taiwan.