South America

In this round-up, Trump was confident China would deliver on promises from G20 dinner, China signed several cooperation agreements in Panama and Argentina, China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) planned to lift bans on trading stock-index futures to boost market activity.

Brazilian government-owned oil company Petrobras has said it is looking to deleverage as part of its new five year business plan. But it will still be a regular borrower in capital markets. Furthermore, though some Latin American debt capital markets bankers say their January pipeline is looking bearer than it usually does at this stage of the year, Brazilian public sector issuers could be the one active area of the market.

Peru set the final size of its new 10 year local currency benchmark at Sl10.35bn ($3.06bn) on Friday after allocating some Sl4.438bn of notes to investors participating in a tender for existing bonds.

Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau will buy back $1bn of existing dollar bonds after receiving over $1.345bn of offers from bondholders to participate in a tender offer during the early-bird period, taking advantage of a strong cash position after asset sales and a recent local bond issue.

Santander Brasil has tested the country’s Letra Imobiliária Garantida (LIGs) covered bond regime with two privately placed deals.

Odebrecht Engenharia & Construçäo finally admitted defeat in its attempt to avoid default on Monday, as it acknowledged that it would not be making a $11.5m coupon payment due on its $519m of 4.375% 2025 bonds, paving the way for a restructuring.

Power generation and distribution company Nautilus Inkia is looking to give Latin America’s corporate bond markets one final burst of life in 2018, as it hits the road eyeing a 144A/Reg S senior unsecured offering.

Patience paid off for Peru on Thursday as its status as one of the safest economies in Latin America helped the sovereign to a new local currency benchmark that received strong interest from international investors.

Peruvian cement company Cementos Pacasmayo is trying to replace half its dollar bonds with a local currency bank loan.

Ecopetrol, the Colombian state oil company, said on Wednesday that it would redeem a $1.5bn bond maturing in 2019 with cash and confirmed that next year’s $3.5bn-$4bn investment programme would be self-financed. Colombia continues to provide slim pickings for bond markets.

Bondholders of Brazilian mining group Vale have taken the chance to decrease their exposure to the rapidly deleveraging company with relish, as investors holding over $3.8bn of paper attempted to participate in a tender offer capped at $1bn.

Odebrecht Engenharia & Construçäo finally admitted defeat in its attempt to avoid default on Monday, as it acknowledged it would not be making a $11.5m coupon payment due on its $519m of 4.375% bonds due 2025, paving the way for a restructuring.