Latin America

As of Thursday afternoon, pricing on a duo of Brazilian high yield credits looked set to be pushed to Friday, as investors in Latin American bonds were given the rare chance to get stuck into some riskier names.

Bankers said that Itaú Unibanco’s proposed tier two dollar deal was “exactly the kind of paper people want to buy” as the Brazilian lender lined up investor meetings in the wake of the Brazilian sovereign’s successful first ever dual tranche dollar deal.

Market participants expect Costa Rica will have little trouble completing a crucial bond issuance next week, with the lack of high yielding sovereign assets in Latin America expected to favour a country that has worked to improve its outlook this year.

Open interest in CME Group’s BRL/USD futures rose in the run up to the Brazilian Central Bank’s 50bp benchmark interest rate cut and has remained elevated ever since.

A group of Barbados' creditors on Wednesday welcomed the government’s launch of an exchange that could see the island nation wrap up an 18 month debt restructuring process.

Brazil completed a tender offer for seven different dollar bonds on Tuesday, buying back for cash small amounts of bonds maturing between 2027 and 2041 but mostly guiding bondholders into its new long 30 year issued on Monday.

Latin American bond market participants away from Costa Rica’s proposed $1.5bn cross-border issue said they thought the deal would find strong demand as the Central American nation announced a roadshow amid friendly market conditions on Tuesday.

Strong technicals continue to drive international bond markets in Latin America as Brazil on Monday became the latest sovereign to take advantage of low rates and push out debt maturities with a 'blowout' dual tranche deal.

Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá (ETB), the Colombian telecoms company majority owned by the City of Bogotá, is looking to buy back up to Ps400tr ($120m) of its global local currency bonds.

The only two corporate issuers from Latin America this week sailed through primary markets as bankers said low rates and technical factors would continue to override socio-political volatility and sluggish economies in the region.

After bankers said Braskem’s blow-out bond issue this week was a vote of confidence for Brazil’s economic turnaround, a small single-B rated bank and an infrastructure company that underwent a restructuring just a year ago a set out to provide a tougher test of demand.

Mexican retailer Grupo Famsa is looking to gain some breathing room with an exchange to push out a looming bond maturity. Yet though Standard & Poor’s and Fitch both consider this a “distressed” deal, only Fitch is planning to cut the borrower’s rating to default.