LatAm Bonds

Mexico kicked off Latin American dollar issuance for the second year running on Tuesday, printing $2.5bn of bonds due in two tranches as part of a liability management exercise.

Dealogic league tables of bond transactions, full year 2013. Includes SSAs, FIG, investment grade and high-yield corporates, emerging markets and ABS.

Dealogic league tables of bond transactions, full year 2013. Includes SSAs, FIG, investment grade and high-yield corporates, emerging markets and ABS.

Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF), the Latin American development bank, sold the longest ever Swiss franc bond from a Latin issuer on Tuesday. The issuer was hoping to appeal to insurance companies, in particular, and was able to almost triple its size expectations in the process.

Latin America is stealing the limelight in emerging markets, having made an impressive start on Tuesday to the challenge of beating last year's record international bond issuance volumes of $125.3bn.

State-owned Brazilian oil company Petrobras demonstrated the increasing appeal of the euro market for developing market issuers on Tuesday when it sold the largest ever non-dollar denominated bond from any EM country. It also showed that it can still raise debt in huge amounts despite worries about economic performance in the country and government interference in the oil sector.

A favourable basis swap is driving emerging market issuers to look at issuing bonds in euros. Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras took advantage on Tuesday to chip away at its huge financing need with a four tranche euro and sterling issue totalling €3.772bn-equivalent.

Brazilian development bank BNDES’s plan to tap the euro markets shortly could be the first of many deals in the currency from Latin American issuers this year, said LatAm DCM bankers on Monday.

Citi benefited from Mexico’s increased share of Latin American international bond issuance in 2013 to retain its number one position in the region’s bookrunner league tables, according to Dealogic. Citi achieved top spot despite its market share falling from 12% to 10.6%, and its volume share in Brazil falling by more than half.

Year to Date Latin America DCM Bookrunner Ranking

Deutsche Bank is top of the overall Emerging Market league table going into the last full working week of 2013. The bank only edged past last year’s winner HSBC in late December and leads by the narrowest of margins. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the other big winner this year, rising three places higher to finish in the top five, although BNP Paribas also climbed up the table.

Standard & Poor’s gave a vote of confidence to Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto’s reforms by upgrading the sovereign by one notch to BBB+ on Thursday evening.