LatAm Bonds

US Circuit judge Christopher Droney removed the final obstacle in Argentina’s path to markets on Wednesday, provoking a rally in the government’s that could scarcely have been better timed.

Investments in Brazilian sugar companies have often ended with a distinctly bitter taste for bondholders as the sector has battled low prices for the commodity and a severe currency devaluation. Those who bought USJ Açúcar e Álcool’s $275m 9.875% 2019s in December 2012 are facing familiar pain.

Empresa Eléctrica Angamos, the Chilean power generation company, will buy back at least $187m of its senior secured notes due 2029 as part of a tender offer but extended the early bird deadline and increased the maximum size in a bid to entice more investors to offer up their holdings.

Camposol, an agribusiness operating mainly on Peru’s Pacific coast, is asking investors to swap existing 2017 bonds for a new five year deal to buy itself time during a period of tight liquidity.

Jacob Steinfeld, JP Morgan’s head of EM corporate research and strategy, has moved to the bank’s Latin American credit trading business — leaving one of his team to take his old job, according to an internal memo. At the same time the US bank has added a new name to its Lat Am credit research team.

An assortment of borrowers, debt capital market bankers and rating agency officials gathered in Nassau on Friday to discuss the state of play for Latin American bond issuers.

The decision by the IDB to grant a $5bn loan to Argentina has helped buoy confidence in the country ahead of its return to international capital markets after a 15-year absence with a $12bn-$15bn bond

The Brics bank is to finally make its capital markets debut later this month by issuing green bonds in RMB with the proceeds to be channelled into energy and infrastructure projects, sources have told Emerging Markets, a sister publication of GlobalCapital Asia.

Argentina, for over 15 years a pariah of international capital markets, will begin meeting fixed income investors on Monday with bond investors and bankers in bullish mood about what could be the largest EM debt issue for two decades.

Not only are Latin American companies not issuing like they used to, but an increasing number are using spare cash to buy back existing bonds in a demonstration of the lack of financing needs in the region.

Lat Am syndicate bankers said on Thursday that the market remained in wait-and-see mode ahead of Argentina’s imminent jumbo bond return as another week passed without issuance.

Latin America credit had an unusually poor day despite a mini rally in oil prices as Moody’s warned about the longer term impact of weak commodities.