LatAm Bonds

PDVSA is doing itself no favours by bending the truth about its financial situation. Bondholders are under no illusions about its troubles, so the company might as well be open with them.

Brazilian steel company Usiminas, which restructured its bank loans and domestic debt in September, has said it will attempt an exchange of its dollar 2018 bonds, which were not part of the restructuring.

The government of El Salvador finally looks ready to issue a much needed international bond to refinance short dated debt, but there is concern that the deal will be only a temporary solution to the country’s liquidity problems.

Santander Chile, which sent a strong message about its financing capabilities with two consecutive deals immediately after the US election result, will adapt to the Trump era with more international bond issuance, the bank’s CFO told GlobalCapital.

Whether PDVSA bondholders choose to believe JP Morgan’s EM research team, or if they agree with the Venezuelan company’s CEO that the US bank is an “enemy of the fatherland”, they cannot have had a particularly reassuring run-up to Thanksgiving, after the borrower’s coupon payments went missing. Oliver West reports.

Market participants are expecting tense discussions after Belize’s government said it would look to restructure its 2038 “super” bond even though there is some debate as to whether a restructuring is really necessary.

The row over PDVSA’s late coupon payments ran into Tuesday with the Venezuelan state oil giant’s CEO claiming that the company had met with “all of its bond payments”.

Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela) failed to make $539m of coupon payments on three bonds last week, activating the 30 day grace period on its 9% 2021s, 6% 2024s and 9.75% 2035s.

Santander Chile, which sent a strong message about its financing capabilities with two consecutive deals immediately after the US election result, will adapt to the Trump era with more international bond issuance, the bank’s CFO told GlobalCapital.

Senior Latin America DCM officials at some market-leading bookrunners said this week that they feared there would be no more dollar issuance from the region in 2016, although a couple of dissenting voices thought one or two issuers may “panic” and attempt to issue.

Central American development bank Cabei added a 20th currency to its bond issuance portfolio on Thursday with a 10 year debut in Australian dollars as niche currencies dominated the post-US election activity in Latin America.

Creditors of Central American sovereign Belize are understood to have formed a committee to deal with a possible second restructuring of the government’s bonds in four years.