LatAm Bonds

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.

Bankers and investors are bracing for a rush of emerging market new issues this month as borrowers forced to delay deals in December return to the international market. "We expect record emerging market issuance in January, first from Latin American and Asian issuers, and then from Russian issuers once Russia comes back from holiday," said Jeremy Brewin, emerging market fund manager at Aviva Investors.

Fitch Ratings has appointed two new regional heads of financial institutions ratings — Mark Young as head of Asia Pacific and Franklin Santarelli as head of Latin America. Both are internal appointments.

Shinsei Bank and Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia (Banca Carige) announced the results of their liability management exercises on Wednesday.

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The dollar market will be awash with sovereign, supranational and agency supply in January, bankers predict, particularly from European supranationals and agencies as they scramble to profit from a hard-to-resist basis swap, a recent back-up in yields and a more stable market than they would find in euros.

Bank resolution regimes may be much better for taxpayers than creditors in the future, Fitch Ratings said in a report this week, suggesting that the recent favourable outcome for senior creditors in Irish banks is unlikely to set a precedent for the treatment of senior debt.