LatAm Bonds

The world’s largest bread maker, Grupo Bimbo, returned to bond markets on Tuesday after a three year absence. Its 30 year bond was sold mainly to US investment grade buyers, despite the issuer’s Mexican nationality.

Axtel, the Mexican telecoms company, is meeting investors for a planned senior unsecured bond issue. Investors say the firm is almost unrecognisable from the one that carried out a distressed debt exchange in 2013.

Holders of PDVSA’s 2017 bonds were suddenly filled with dread by Tuesday’s close as rumours of the overdue maturity payment being made could not be confirmed. Its credit default swap price worsened on the expectation a credit event would be declared.

While it is tempting to think of capital markets-friendly President Mauricio Macri as having wiped Argentina’s slate clean, it is not yet time for EM investors to forgive and forget.

Panamanian lender Multibank sold $300m of five year bonds on its first US bond market outing on Monday.

President Maduro’s surprise restructuring announcement only makes things murkier for Venezuelan bondholders.

Despite Venezuela offering some further colour on its proposed debt restructuring on Friday, the government’s plan is still unclear as its bond prices plummeted.

Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual is looking to buy back 30% of old perpetual notes via a tender offer it will finance with cash.

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s announcement on Thursday that he would restructure the country’s debt left bondholders in “no man’s land”, after he appointed a politician that no US person is allowed to deal with as head of the restructuring group.

Mexican baked goods company Grupo Bimbo and a Panamanian bank are ready to bring variety to Latin America’s bond market next week after meeting bond investors this week.

Argentine lender Banco Hipotecario and Colombian utility EPM sold local currency deals on the international market this week but market participants said a limited buyer base is restricting momentum in these types of trades.

Inkia Energy, the Latin American power generation and distribution holding company, returned to the bond market on Thursday with a deal that divided opinion on relative value but performed strongly in the grey market.