Latin America

Defaulted Caribbean sovereign Barbados proposed two possible solutions to the restructuring of its external debt on Wednesday, though it stopped short of making a formal offer to creditors — perhaps in recognition of a warning from certain bondholders two weeks ago.

Mexico’s largest locally owned bank Banco Mercantil del Norte (Banorte) will begin meeting fixed income investors this week as it looks to test investor appetite for Mexico credit with a new subordinated bond.

Just two weeks after the IMF said it had reached a staff level agreement on the first review of Ecuador’s economic programme, the South American sovereign pounced on a positive start to the week in markets to issue $1.125bn of bonds that will be used to refinance debt due next year.

Peru will meet fixed income investors in the US on Tuesday and Wednesday as the new second best rated sovereign in Latin America prepares a dual currency bond offering that would include its first visit to dollar markets since 2015.

US president Donald Trump’s latest Twitter update about US trade policy brought Latin America's bond bankers hope that Mexico debt might enjoy a better week as he abandoned — for now at least — plans to impose tariffs on Mexican goods.

Spreads on dollar bonds issued by Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex ballooned by up to 50bp on Thursday as a sovereign downgrade led the company to lose one of its investment grade ratings and threatened a second.

Uruguay-based shipping and logistics firm Navios South American Logistics was the only Latin American borrower on a roadshow this week but debt capital markets bankers hope that a benevolent rates environment may cajole nervous issuers into primary markets.

Cabei (Central American Bank for Economic Integration) has issued a request for proposal (RFP) for a potential first dollar benchmark since 2012, Latin American bond market participants told GlobalCapital.

The chief financial officer of Avianca Holdings told GlobalCapital that he is in near daily discussions with export credit agencies (ECAs) to resolve two separate issues and thus allow the Colombian airline to return to bond markets to refinance a $550m bond maturing in May 2020.

Moody’s and Fitch took negative rating actions on Mexico within three minutes of each other late on Wednesday afternoon as concerns over state oil firm Pemex filtered into assessments of the sovereign’s creditworthiness.

The chief financial officer of Avianca Holdings told GlobalCapital that he is in near daily discussions with export credit agencies (ECAs) to resolve two separate issues and thus allow the Colombian airline to return to bond markets to refinance a $550m bond maturing in May 2020.

Dennis Eisele will become Credit Suisse’s head of Latin American debt capital markets in August after he ended a 19 year stint Deutsche Bank, according to an internal memo seen by GlobalCapital.