LatAm Bonds

Political volatility might finally be biting in Peru, with Fitch putting the country's rating on negative outlook.

A group of bondholders holding more than half of the Argentine province of Córdoba’s international bonds took just one day to yet again reject the issuer’s attempt to amend terms on $1.67bn of bonds. As the countdown to default begins, creditors called for discussions “rooted in the realities of the province’s financial position and outlook”.

Only a small number of holders of Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile’s (Codelco) bonds agreed to participate in the first stage of a tender offer the government-owned copper producer will finance using proceeds from a recent bond issue.

Costa Rica’s finance ministry said on Monday that it planned to begin discussions over a new $1.75bn IMF programme in the second week of January. But though an agreement would likely drive a rally in the sovereign’s bonds, Fitch Ratings warned it would not remove debt sustainability pressures.

Banco de la República (BanRep), the central bank of Colombia, has elected a former board member as its next governor, in a move unlikely to signal any major changes in the bank’s policy.

Jose Andrés Olivares Canchari, director general of Peru’s public treasury, is to leave his role this week for personal reasons, GlobalCapital understands.

With returns on developed market bonds being squeezed as never before, debt analysts are heralding emerging markets as the place for investors to be in 2021. Yet the faster the global economic recovery, the more vulnerable EM fixed income will be to what has often been its downfall: any signal of tighter global liquidity conditions, write Mariam Meskin and Oliver West.

As year-end approaches and investors look for a breather, Latin America’s regular issuers usually spend December preparing for the traditional January funding round. But two of the region’s most prolific borrowers could not resist the historically low funding costs on offer this week, tapping existing bonds to buy back shorter-dated paper.

Latin American power generation company EnfraGen debuted in the international bond markets on Wednesday, benefiting from the strong performance from the region’s last power sector issue to price inside where some investors were expecting — despite a leverage ratio of nine times.

UEP Penonomé, the company behind Panama’s first wind farm, turned to bond markets for the first time on Wednesday for a $262.664m senior secured amortising bond.

Colombia’s finance ministry said on Wednesday evening that it had taken the “first step to entering the bond market for sustainable development” after Congress approved the issue of thematic bonds.

The Dominican Republic refinanced the bulk of its 2021 bond maturities on Monday with a tap of its 12 year bonds that took international issuance from Latin American sovereigns to record annual volumes.