Latin America

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said on Friday that it has appointed the local branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as the renminbi clearing bank for Argentina. The country becomes the second official RMB hub in Latin America, following the footsteps of Chile.

Troubled Brazilian shopping centre owner General Shopping Brasil has launched a heavily discounted tender of its 10% senior perpetual notes in an effort to reduce its dollar debt, although Fitch says that a debt restructuring is “likely to occur in the near future”.

DCM bankers covering Brazil are hopeful that liability management exercises from financial institutions may provide them with something to do in the coming weeks as the new issue market suffers depressed volumes.

Buy and sell side credit traders expressed disappointment on Thursday, after the US Federal Reserve elected to keep interest rates on hold.

Troubled Brazilian shopping centre owner General Shopping Brasil has launched a heavily discounted tender of its 10% senior perpetual notes in an effort to reduce its dollar debt, although Fitch says that a debt restructuring is “likely to occur in the near future”.

The issuer formerly known as Pacific Rubiales fell just one notch away from triple-C status on Wednesday after Moody’s downgraded the borrower by three notches from Ba3 to B3 and kept it on negative outlook.

Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Banrisul) has become the third Brazilian lender to launch a tender offer for existing debt as bond prices in the country hit lows.

The downgrade of Brazil by Standard & Poor’s into sub-investment grade territory on Wednesday had been seen as inevitable for nearly two months. But when it came, the downgrade was as brutal as it could have been.

The two Fibras — or Mexican Reits (real estate investment trusts) — lining up to issue are perfect candidates for the volatile conditions in the Latin American market, said LatAm bond bankers.

LatAm syndicate bankers said Codelco had carried out a perfectly executed trade on Wednesday with its new 10 year, but some highlighted that the re-offer yield should be a lesson to borrowers about the dangers of waiting to issue.

América Móvil on Thursday issued its second exchangeable bond into stock of Koninklijke KPN in just four months, raising €750m after a €3bn issue in May. But this deal, unlike the earlier, was a mandatorily exchangeable structure.

Brazil’s downgrade to junk will come as little surprise to market observers, given the increasingly bearish sentiment seen in Brazilian sovereign bonds.