LatAm Bonds

The Republic of Panama was pricing its debut Samurai bond as Euroweek went to press on Thursday night. Bankers expect the sovereign to price the 10 year bond, which will total the equivalent of $500m, at 48bp over yen swaps. Morgan Stanley, Daiwa and Mitsubishi UFJ are lead managers.

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Retail chain Cencosud issued Chile’s largest ever private sector corporate bond this week, raising $750m via a 10-year offering on Wednesday. Lead managers Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Banco Santander priced the deal, rated Baa3 by Moody’s and BBB- by Fitch, with a 5.5% coupon to yield 230bp over US Treasuries.

Latin American banks continued last week’s borrowing spree, with new deals emerging from Banco do Brasil, Banco Cruzeiro do Sul, Banco Daycoval and Banco Santander Chile.

First Gulf Bank and Union Bank of India are in the Swiss franc market today, starting the promised 2011 rush of emerging market issuers into the market.

After attracting more than Eu20bn of orders, the European Union’s Eu5bn blow-out this week has blazed a trail for the rest of the eurozone rescue package.

A desperate race for liquidity and the threat of bail-ins may already be souring debt investors’ appetite after the bank finance market absorbed close to an unprecedented $50bn of new supply globally in the first four trading days of 2011.

New issues from Banco Bradesco of Brazil and Colombia’s Bancolombia have signalled the latest international funding charge by Latin American banks. Several regional peers are set to follow next week.

Cemex reaped the rewards of pre-Christmas preparations this week, becoming the first emerging market corporate to issue an international bond in 2011 with a $1bn seven year senior secured bond via Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan on Tuesday. With the JPMorgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global tightening 12bp against US Treasuries, the Mexican cement giant attracted almost $6bn of orders.

As Network Rail and Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (BNG) priced their inaugural and second 144A deals respectively, and KfW and EIB priced well received global deals, dealers said the US institutional investor base was becoming increasingly ripe for SSA borrowers.