Latin America

Chilean power company Colbún will buy back more than 70% of its existing $500m 6% 2020s after wrapping up the early-bird portion of a tender offer.

Staatsolie, the oil company 100% owned by the Surinamese government, will look to raise financing on international bond and stock markets if there are commercial oil finds in its waters.

S&P and Fitch have upgraded El Salvador’s foreign currency debt rating after the Central American sovereign completed a restructuring of debt owed to local private pension funds.

Brazil sold new 10 year bonds this week as part of a liability management exercise, using a combination of a cash tender and exchange offer to buy back $3bn of short-dated bonds.

Chilean lender Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (BCI) became the latest Latin American issuer to take advantage of strong market conditions as it took the plunge on its first international bond issuance for more than four years.

Three of the first four Latin American dollar deals of the week were priced inside each borrower’s respective curve as syndicate bankers covering the region struggled to remember such an extended period of bond market strength.

A decision not to take a rating from Moody’s proved wise for Braskem as the Brazilian company attracted significant interest from investment grade buyers on its way to a $1.75bn dual tranche deal on Wednesday.

Extraordinarily strong appetite for EM corporate paper helped power company Colbún become the latest Latin American borrower to issue through its existing curve on Wednesday.

Brazil followed Mexico’s example in making the most of idyllic issuance conditions on Tuesday, though some investors argued that Brazil’s $3bn deal demonstrated that the market retained some sense of discipline.

Latin America DCM bankers saw Mexico’s latest bond issue priced with a negative new issue premium on Monday, though at one stage it looked like the deal could have come even further inside fair value as the $1.88bn sale was launched at the middle of the guidance range.

Brazil’s Braskem could become the third Latin America chemicals company in two weeks to issue internationally as it meets fixed income investors on Monday and Tuesday.

Mexican chemicals company Cydsa brought back memories to many market participants with a 10 year bond issue last week, but had to up its offer to investors to haul the $330m deal over the line.