South America

Latin American bond bankers were left envying colleagues covering other markets as the region missed out on strong global credit conditions with a dead week for new issue activity.

Latin America's primary bond market has had its slowest start for nine years despite strong appetite for emerging market debt. This has presented an unexpected opportunity for issuers, and those from Brazil are best placed to take advantage.

Brazil’s first attempt to reduce the pension burden at the heart of its fiscal problem impressed analysts on Wednesday, though it did little to lift bond prices with many investors having already taken a bullish view on the prospects of reform.

Latin America's primary bond market has had its slowest start for nine years despite strong appetite for emerging market debt. This has presented an unexpected opportunity for issuers, and those from Brazil are best placed to take advantage.

Investors should beware the surge in Brazilian equities that coincided with the election of its new president Jair Bolsonaro last year.

BTG Pactual has appointed Brazil’s most recent finance minister to become CEO of its asset management business following the hire of a BlackRock veteran to lead its equities business.

Dutch asset manager NN Investment Partners will open a new office in Montevideo, Uruguay on February 25 to service Latin American and US offshore clients, the company said on Friday.

BTG Pactual’s new tier two bonds, the only new issue from Latin America this week, traded pretty much in line with reoffer in the days following pricing, suggesting leads had done a reasonable job of price discovery.

Brazilian lender BTG Pactual was the sole Latin American borrower to venture into dollar markets this week as some syndicate bankers began to worry that the region’s issuers are missing the best of conditions.

Chilean copper miner Codelco looks unlikely to be able to repurchase the $1.907bn of bonds that it was hoping to cancel via a tender offer after investors holding just over half of that amount agreed to sell their paper after the early-bird period expired.

Though a paucity of direct comparable bonds made it difficult to precisely judge the pricing on BTG Pactual’s tier two deal on Tuesday, DCM bankers said that the Brazilian lender had shown investors were willing to bet on high yield paper but keep discipline on price.

Brazilian bank BTG Pactual will look to price a 10 year non-call five subordinated tier two note on Tuesday after wrapping up investor meetings in Asia on Monday.