Latin America

Venezuela’s cryptocurrency plans were met with a dismissive reaction from Lat Am bond market participants this week, who questioned the value of any currency issued by the defaulting government.

At least two Latin American borrowers opted to delay new issue announcements this week as syndicate bankers suggested the names in the pipeline would be more demanding on pricing than their CEEMEA counterparts that did issue.

Venezuela has become the first sovereign nation to launch a cryptocurrency. While few outside Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s administration are impressed by the pioneering venture, others are expected to follow suit nonetheless, write Lewis McLellan, Costas Mourselas and Oliver West.

A new study of green bond pricing has stopped short of saying that green bond issuers can generally expect to get tighter new issue premiums. But the report’s lead author did say: “Green bond buyers can’t expect to receive a new issue premium — that is itself quite a bold statement.”

US market volatility has kept Latin American primary bonds silent for nine straight business after what had been a record start to the year. But even though EM borrowers from other parts of the world are this week pricing deals, Lat Am bankers are in no hurry to bring new debt issuance from the region while the volatility persists.

The new bond issues may be flowing in emerging markets, but after weeks of volatility, the era of easy execution is over.

South America’s smallest nation, Suriname, suffered a rating downgrade late on Tuesday, due to Moody’s fears of a further erosion in the country’s fiscal metrics.

We are excited to announce that the GlobalCapital Bond Awards Poll is now open.

Banco Supervielle, the Argentine lender, is looking to increase the size of its existing bond shelf from $800m to $2.3bn, according to a regulatory filing.

The UK Embassy in Peru and Bolsa de Valores de Lima (BVL), the Lima Stock Exchange, have launched plans for what would be the first green bond market in South America, following a similar initiative in Mexico.

Mexican state-owned giant Pemex will buy back $1.8bn of old bonds in the second leg of a liability management exercise funded by its recent bond issue.

New issue markets in Latin America took a pause this week, but DCM bankers covering the region were not overly concerned as recent deals issued amid the volatility began to gain ground.