Latin America

Bond markets continue to offer Latin American sovereigns tight pricing down the dollar curve, with Panama and Paraguay on Wednesday becoming the latest pair to price dual tranche deals. But with rates curves having steepened this month amid the expectation of higher rates in the long term, bankers are sensing that the 10 year is becoming the sweet spot on the maturity curve.

Chile tapped bond markets for $4.25bn-equivalent of funding on Tuesday, starting with a 10 year green tap and new long-dated social bond in euros, and then following a similar playbook in US dollars.

Debt capital markets bankers covering Latin America continue to be impressed by the pace and variety of new issuance in January, with Guatemalan lender Banco Industrial the latest to join the primary pipeline.

Creditors of Argentine state-owned oil and gas company YPF are fighting for their rights after being asked to participate in a debt exchange that would cause them material losses. But even if bondholders rebuff what appears to be an opportunistic offer, the attempted deal is another bad omen for investors in Argentina.

Chile is looking to debut its social bond framework in the euro market this week with a 20 or 30 year benchmark. The deal will be accompanied by a re-opening of its 0.83% green bonds maturing in July 2031.

A group of investors holding more than a quarter of YPF’s $6.228bn of outstanding international bonds have confirmed that they will not participate in the company’s exchange offer, but say they do not believe they need to take further steps, for now, to block the deal.

Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Banrisul), the 10th largest bank in Brazil, is approaching international bond investors for the first time since 2012 as it looks to return to markets with a tier two bond issuer.

Colombia’s public credit head told GlobalCapital that the sovereign had wanted to move quickly to get ahead of potential volatility as it printed $2.84bn of new bonds this week as part of a liability management operation. The official said that the early-year sell-off in US Treasuries had not tainted what was a strong issuance window.

Four heavily oversubscribed Latin American new issues fetched tight pricing on Thursday, dispelling the unease felt at the week’s start and putting the region firmly on track to fulfil the predictions of record primary volumes for a January.

Colombia tapped international bond markets for the first time since June this week. But it is the country's domestic bond market — which is 25% owned by foreign investors — that could be in for a particularly notable year, with the sovereign set to turn to pesos for its debut green bond in July. It is also laying the ground for a social bond and a government bond ETF.

Just over a week after it reopened EM bond markets with a dollar deal, Mexico is turning to euros for a dual tranche new issue as part of a liability management exercise.

The Dominican Republic raised $2.5bn across two tranches amid an improving tone in EM bond markets on Wednesday, providing an encouraging sign to the several Latin American credits expected to price before the week is over.