Latin America

A decision by the new prime minister of Barbados to suspend all external debt payments sent the island’s bond prices down more than 50 points, stunning bondholders who were mostly not expecting to take the brunt of a long-term economic decline.

With Petrobras bond prices still on their way down after a truckers’ strike that caused the company to cut diesel prices, CEO Pedro Parente resigned on Friday — much to the dismay of Fitch Ratings.

Central American development bank Cabei issued Ps4bn ($199.8m) of Mexican peso denominated debt via a dual-tranche bond sale last week.

Chilean electricity company Enel Chile will meet fixed income investors from Friday attempting to find the light at the end of a relatively dark month for Latin American markets.

Former Colombian president and one time market darling Álvaro Uribe’s cherry-picked candidate won the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, giving investors some relief amid tough markets.

Colombia’s inter-parliamentary Public Credit Commission on Tuesday approved a sovereign guarantee to Empresa Metro de Bogotá, the company managing the proposed construction of the city’s first subway line, opening the possibility of a bond issue.

Chiles’s largest utility by installed capacity and number of clients is looking to become the first Latin American investment-grade company to tap dollar markets since May 3, after announcing investor meetings ahead of a proposed SEC-registered benchmark.

Turkish assets have performed this week after a long period of weakness with two emerging markets portfolio managers saying that the worst of the volatility in the lira exchange rate may have passed.

Colombia’s inter-parliamentary Public Credit Commission on Tuesday approved a sovereign guarantee to Empresa Metro de Bogotá, the company managing the proposed construction of the city’s first subway line, opening the possibility of a bond issue.

Public holidays in the US and UK gave bond markets an extra 24 hours to digest the results of Sunday’s presidential election in Colombia, though analysts are expecting little change as the first round of the vote went as expected.

Hunt Oil Company of Peru on Thursday sold the largest dollar-denominated bond deal from a Latin American issuer this month. Syndicate bankers took the deal as a positive even though investors said the issuer had been generous with pricing.

Nicolás Maduro’s comfortable and predicted victory in Sunday’s highly questioned presidential elections in Venezuela has reaffirmed the view of many bondholders that improvements in the crisis-stricken country are some way off.