Latin America

Five Brazilian borrowers have tender offers underway on dollar bonds as those issuers with the cash to spare are taking advantage of rapid drops in secondary market prices.

There was a time when Bogotá’s public transport system looked a bit like that computer game where the frog has to get across a highway without being flattened. The streets were gridlocked with buses, and not with any sense of co-ordination among them.

It is said that if all forestry management was conducted like Sweden’s SCA, there would be no climate change problem. It is said, specifically, by SCA’s vice president for environmental affairs, Patrik Isaksson. “Yes,” he says cheerfully. “Let me explain that provocative statement.”

Brazilian meatpacker Marfrig wasted no time in putting the proceeds of its sale of UK subsidiary Moy Park to work, launching a tender offer for old dollar bonds the day after the deal was closed.

Bondholders have given Banrisul a stronger response to its tender offer for subordinated debt than they gave Brazilian peer Banco BMG in the early bird phase, but not as overwhelming a response as they gave Banco Votorantim, as Brazilian banks look to repurchase expensive bonds.

The Argentine province of Neuquén said it would make a second attempt to sell a dollar-denominated bond “when market conditions are more stable and convenient”, after the region’s government did not approve the interest rates that investors were seeking.

An evolution is happening in emerging market issuers’ use of yen funding. For many years, many of them have only been able to issue Samurai bonds by using JBIC’s GATE (Guarantee and Acquisition toward Tokyo market Enhancement) programme, but steadily more of them are stepping up to standalone issuance. At the same time, benchmark borrowers are bringing along less established issuers from the same countries in their wake

With local currency devaluations hurting dollar bond issuers across Latin America, Peruvian sugar cane producer Corporación Azucarera del Perú (Coazucar) has launched a tender offer for up to $165m of international bonds.

Sellside bankers desperate to generate business in a stormy LatAm debt market will have been pleased. For as a lesson for issuers in the benefits of sacrificing a few basis points in the interests of getting a deal done, Colombia’s long 10 year on Monday was as good as they come.

Another torrid week for Brazilian credit had investors predicting the sell-off in the country’s assets had further to run despite some names looking cheap at first glance.

Pemex looks set to return to the Swiss franc market for the first time in three and a half years after announcing plans to meet investors in Switzerland next week.

Pemex looks set to return to the Swiss franc market for the first time in three and a half years after announcing plans to meet investors in Switzerland next week.