Latin America

Intense demand in the Swiss franc bond market for any asset with a positive yield — or even anything yielding more than the penal negative rates on cash — gave a varied group of issuers this week execution that pushed the boundaries — bigger, faster and tighter.

Chilean power generator Colbún will begin investor meetings on February 21 with the publication of full year financial reports set to trigger a second wave of new Latin American issuance for the year.

The Mexican finance ministry will visit fixed income investors in Europe next week to present the framework under which it hopes to issue bonds designed to finance expenditure in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Latin America’s largest private sector lender Itaú returned to bond markets for the second time this year, following up January’s senior unsecured deal with an additional tier one perpetual note that was five times oversubscribed.

The US Treasury slapped sanctions on a Rosneft subsidiary on Tuesday for brokering sales of Venezuelan crude oil that supported president Nicolás Maduro’s government. Some expect this to be the first of similar actions, in the run up to the US presidential election.

Colombia consumer and payroll lender Credivalores will buy back nearly $155m of its senior unsecured bonds maturing in 2022 after completing a tender offer for the notes.

Privately held Argentine power generator Stoneway Capital Corporation has asked bondholders to postpone an amortisation payment on its senior secured bonds as delays from government energy distributor Cammesa begin to bite.

The International Monetary Fund maintained that relations with the Argentine government were “constructive” after a staff mission met economy minister Martín Guzmán on Friday afternoon.

Argentina appeared to adopt a firmer posture on debt restructuring negotiations this week, as it postponed repaying a domestic bond held mostly by foreigners. Economy minister Martín Guzmán told the country's Congress that he would “not let foreign investors set the tone for macroeconomic policy”.

The final Latin American corporate deal before a hiatus for the earnings blackout period showed that borrowers were benefiting from volatility related to Covid-19, the official name of the coronavirus outbreak. However, a prolonged scare could bring negative consequences.

Argentina's plans to restructure $67bn of debt in under two months may look naive to some but the ambition the government has so far demonstrated point towards a good outcome.

Though Latin America bond markets have so far dodged the brunt of global volatility related to Covid-19, the official name of the coronavirus outbreak, the region’s commodity dependence makes it particularly vulnerable to a China slowdown, say analysts.