LatAm Bonds

South American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) has elected Luis Carranza Ugarte, the former Peruvian finance minister, as executive president.

Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, the Argentine airport operator, is looking to return to bond markets in 2017 with a 10 year deal of up to $400m.

Fitch assigned a negative outlook to Latin America’s best-rated sovereign, Chile, on Tuesday as years of low growth finally catch up with the region’s most stable credits.

Fitch said on Tuesday that there would be “no respite” for Latin American corporates in 2017 after record high defaults this year, although not all bond investors share the rating agency’s gloom.

Fitch has partially blamed Donald Trump’s election as US president for hurting Mexico’s economic prospects after it became the third major rating agency to place the sovereign’s credit rating on negative outlook this year.

Mexico’s Pemex put smiles on the faces of bankers and investors with a $5.5bn triple tranche bond issue on Tuesday, the first Latin American bond to be sold in the US since before the US election.

Ecuador, the highest yielding single B sovereign in the world, issued $750m of 10 year bonds on Thursday, becoming the second Latin American credit in a week to take advantage of the recent rally in oil, following Mexican state-owned oil giant Pemex’s $5.5bn bond.

Latin American bond bankers believe that Tuesday’s triple tranche bond issue from Pemex is likely to have been the last cross-border deal of the year from the region, even though the bonds provided further encouraging signs with a strong aftermarket performance.

Mexican state-owned oil giant Pemex responded to Mexico’s impressive first competitive deep-water oil auction by reminding investors of its prowess in markets with a $5.5bn triple tranche bond.

Things may finally be looking up for Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção (OEC), the engineering and construction arm of Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, after it came to a leniency agreement with Brazilian, US and Swiss authorities regarding its involvement in the Lava Jato corruption scandal.

Chilean retailer SMU appears to be putting the worst of its financial troubles behind it as Moody’s granted the borrower another rating upgrade.

Latin American issuers again showed no interest in cross-border new issue markets this week as Mexican retailer and financial services company Grupo Elektra said it would use domestic bonds to prepay dollar bonds.