LatAm Bonds

KfW and the Republic of Austria this week announced mandates for euro benchmarks to be launched in January, setting out their stalls early for what is expected to be a hectic year in the sovereign, supranational and agency market, further complicated by competition from government guaranteed bank issuance.

The ghost of Christmas past visited the US high grade market this week. Although everyone had predicted a thin week to end a calamitous year, the market suddenly, unexpectedly and uncharacteristically was blessed with enormous appetite for often the most unlikely of borrowers.

The United Mexican States sprung an end of year surprise raid on the sleepy Latin American debt markets yesterday when it priced a $2bn 10 year bond. The first emerging markets sovereign issue since September took advantage of historically low yields on US Treasuries to print with a coupon of 5.95%.