Latin America

Amid increasing concern that Argentina might delay a new IMF agreement until after mid-term elections in October, one of the creditor groups that negotiated last year’s sovereign debt restructuring issued a plea to the government to turn its economic policy around.

Mexican petrochemicals producer Alpek shrugged off a sharp sell-off in US Treasury yields earlier in the week to notch a highly oversubscribed 10 year bond in the only public benchmark new issue from Latin America this week.

Mexico petrochemical company Alpek could announce a new 10 year note as soon as Thursday, and investors expect the issuer to receive strong demand amid a quiet Latin America primary market.

Mexican petrochemicals producer Alpek, which lost one of its investment grade ratings for the first time last September, was holding calls with fixed income investors this week ahead of a proposed liability management exercise that would push its average debt maturity from 4.4 years to seven years.

Banco Santander Chile sold its first ESG-themed bond on Tuesday, raising $50m in a private placement with a Japanese investor to finance small and medium sized enterprises led by women.

Argentina’s sovereign bonds endured a rough ride in the past week as investors and analysts worry that the government may not be as keen as it appears to reach a new agreement with the IMF by May, its previously outlined deadline.

European asset manager Amundi is launching an open-ended fund for institutional and retail investors that will buy hard currency green bonds issued by emerging markets issuers.

Entre Ríos, the only Argentine province to have faced legal proceedings as a result of the past year’s wave of bond defaults, looks set to avoid a legal battle after reaching a restructuring agreement with the creditors that had pursued it in a US court.

Peruvian mining company Volcán said on Saturday that holders of around two thirds of its $535.264m 5.375% 2022 bond had participated in a tender offer for the issue. But the borrower will only accept 35.5% of the amount tendered, and will use the majority of the proceeds of its recent five year bond issue to pay back a bank loan also maturing next year.

Ecuador’s international bonds recovered some recent losses on Thursday after former banker Guillermo Lasso crept into second place in the vote count of last Sunday’s presidential election. Yet the first round of the election has failed to provide certainty about what economic policy making might look like under the next government.

Argentine oil and gas company YPF will avoid a hard default after the country’s central bank, the Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA) agreed to provide the issuer with sufficient dollars not just to complete a bond swap, but also to make a maturity payment on March 23 to creditors that did not participate in the company's recent debt exchange.

Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca’s bonds fell sharply in secondary markets this week after the company missed a coupon payment on its international bonds. But the decision to stay current on, and prepay, a domestic bond left some bondholders recalling previous battles with Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Mexico’s third richest man and the owner of the broadcaster.