LatAm Bonds

BBVA’s Mexican subsidiary, Bancomer, on Tuesday provided one of the clearest examples yet of the attractiveness of international bond markets for Latin American borrowers as it notched the lowest ever coupon on a dollar deal from a bank from the region.

South America’s largest corn-based ethanol producer, FS Agrisolutions Indústria de Biocombustíveis (FS), will look to become the latest Latin American borrower to sell a sustainability-themed bond as it proposes a green format for its international market debut.

Seven months after it visited European investors to market the idea, Mexico sold the first sovereign bond explicitly aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on Monday, saying it was the first step on the way to building an external yield curve of sustainable bonds.

Mexican cement producer Cemex sold its second dollar bond in three months on Monday, fetching lower pricing at a longer maturity than on its June outing as observers saw a slim new issue concession amid what one analyst called recent “insatiable” demand for the credit.

Brazilian food company BRF is planning a new dollar bond to finance a buy-back of euro and dollar notes maturing between 2022 and 2026 as investors say the protein sector’s strong performance this year means conditions are ideal for liability management trades.

BBVA’s Mexican subsidiary BBVA Bancomer is looking for its first international bond in a year after mandating banks to lead a senior unsecured deal.

Latin American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) set pricing on Tuesday for a five-year dollar bond, having already gathered enough indications of interest overnight on Monday to cover what had been announced as a $500m deal.

The Dominican Republic will begin virtual meetings with fixed income investors on Tuesday as it contemplates issuing in both dollars and pesos.

Last week’s flurry of new deals from Latin America were performing well on Friday as cash continues to flow into EM bond funds. The region looks well placed for a busy September of primary market activity, say bankers.

The Argentine province of Córdoba’s bondholders have said that the issuer is asking for more debt relief than it needs with a proposal to push out maturities and reduce coupons on three bonds maturing in 2021, 2024 and 2027. The group has submitted a counterproposal that would simply extend the maturity on the 2021s without reducing the coupon, and leave the other two bonds untouched.

It is rare for one issuer to recognise another's bond issue, but Enel's chief financial officer went to the trouble on Friday of issuing a statement to commend the previous day's sustainability-linked bond issue by Suzano, the Brazilian pulp and paper company which is unaffiliated with Enel.

Emerging markets issuers flocked to bond markets this week with impressive results, despite severe weaknesses in equity and oil markets. A 20bp negative concession for Brazil’s Suzano on Thursday, on the first sustainability-linked bond ever from an EM issuer, wrapped a hectic week as investors dived into the higher yielding asset classes. Mariam Meskin and Oliver West report.