Latin America

Bond markets have been settling in for a period of higher US Treasury yields since Wednesday when the Federal Reserve confirmed it did not expect to raise rates before 2024. While that made long-dated issuance trickier for SSA issuers, there was hope that emerging market bond issuance will soon resume, even if a bumpy ride lies in wait. Mariam Meskin, Oliver West and Lewis McLellan report.

Suriname asked bondholders for more time to reach a crucial agreement with the IMF on Wednesday evening, requesting investors extend a previously agreed holiday on all bond payments.

Moody’s became the third rating agency in four months to downgrade Panama’s sovereign rating, cutting the borrower from Baa1 to Baa2 on Wednesday afternoon on the back of an “unusually large” erosion of the country’s fiscal strength during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bond bankers say new issuance from Latin America is unlikely to pick up until after Easter, even though they believe the technical dynamics in the market remain favourable for issuers.

Aberdeen Standard Investments, the asset manager with over £450bn ($625m) of assets under management, has hired an emerging markets economist from research firm Capital Economics.

Minerva and Marfrig, the Brazilian meatpacking rivals, said on Monday that they would prepay dollar bonds as part of continued efforts to reduce leverage.

The International Monetary Fund said in the concluding statement of last week’s Article IV mission to Belize that the government needs to restructure its debts to restore public debt sustainability, leaving bondholders bracing for a fifth credit event since 2007.

Fitch downgraded Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca from C to restricted default (RD) on Friday after the 30 day grace period expired on a missed coupon payment. The rating agency is forecasting recoveries for bondholders in the 31%-50% range.

Faltering momentum in Latin American bond issuance has put this year's unprecedented surge of green and sustainable deals on pause. But even if volatility persists, as global bond markets deal with rising US interest rates, LatAm issuers will not only maintain their focus on ESG, but they may find sustainability credentials are more valuable than ever.

Peruvian food retail and pharmacy group InRetail Consumer took advantage of calmer markets and the scarcity value of Peruvian corporates to achieve higher oversubscription and greater pricing compression than any Latin American new issue since February 18. on the way to a $600m seven year on Thursday.

As financial institutions across asset classes raised gender-themed funding this week, Colombia’s vice-president Marta Lucía Ramirez took International Women’s Day as a chance to hail the potential of the sovereign using bond markets to fund its gender equality initiatives.

As Colombia works on the initial stages of developing a social bond framework, the sovereign has identified gender and immigration as two of its key pillars.