Latin America

Colombo-Canadian oil and gas company Frontera Energy’s attempt to grant itself the power to make larger payments to shareholders is an aggressive move, said bankers as Fitch highlighted it would be a credit negative.

Bond market analysts say that the external financing required by Ecuador’s budget for 2019 will be a tough ask given existing market conditions, as the sovereign’s bonds slump amid a fall in oil prices.

South American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) is due to price to a first public dollar deal in a year on Thursday, having set price talk on Wednesday.

MetLife, the US insurance company, has made an unusual investment as part of its impact investment portfolio, which has about $200m of assets. It is providing a revolving credit facility to an impact investment fund, to enable it to cope more easily with redemptions.

Colombo-Canadian oil and gas company Frontera Energy’s attempt to grant itself the power to make larger payments to shareholders is an aggressive move, said bankers as Fitch highlighted it would be a credit negative.

Just over 100 days since Ivan Duque took office as Colombia’s president, the South American country has appointed a new head of public credit and national treasury.

Frontera Energy Corporation, the Canada-listed Colombian oil and gas company, is asking bondholders permission to make payments otherwise forbidden by the terms of its outstanding debt.

Brazilian mining giant Vale has launched its third public tender offer for outstanding international bonds, seeking to continue to cut its debt by buying back $1bn of notes.

The government of Bermuda could issue a new dollar benchmark this week, as it seeks to finance the buy-back of up to $424m of existing bonds.

Three Latin American bond issuers made it through new issue markets this week, but bond bankers were hardly confident about the prospects for the rest of the year, as investors remain uneasy about adding risk.

Despite volatile market conditions, which usually make local currency issuance a tough sell, some bond investors say they have their eyes peeled for a Peruvian government nuevo sol trade after the sovereign completed a buy-back of dollar debt on Tuesday.

Pulp and paper producer Suzano Papel e Celulose raised $500m of 30 year debt on Tuesday, two months after first mooting the idea, putting it closer to completing the financing of its takeover of fellow Brazilian company Fibria.