South America

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has issued a licence that would enable holders of PDVSA’s 8.5% 2020s to access the bond’s collateral despite an executive order that prohibits US persons from receiving shares from the Venezuelan government.

Latin American corporate bond refinancing needs will surge next year just as external financing conditions have worsened and as new governments take office across the region, Fitch warned this week.

Brazilian issuers continue to focus mostly on liability management rather than new debt raising as a combination of weak conditions and looming presidential elections makes timing new deals difficult.

French lender BNP Paribas has hired from a rival house to add to its Latin American debt capital markets team.

Brazilian issuers continue to focus mostly on liability management rather than new debt raising as a combination of weak conditions and looming presidential elections makes timing new deals difficult.

Brazilian utility Cemig ended a three week hiatus in offshore Latin American bond issuance this week and was swiftly followed by the Dominican Republic as the two high yield borrowers raised a combined $1.8bn.

Chilean utility AES Gener will buy back $200m of old bonds after investors pledged to sell more than the maximum purchase amount that the company had set before the early bird deadline of July 11.

Dutch lender ING has hired a director to focus on Latin American and high yield debt capital markets origination as part of its recently launched global capital markets Americas group.

Brazilian utility Cemig will test appetite for high yield issuance in Latin America on Thursday after it approached investors about the possibility of tapping of its existing dollar bond.

Gas Natural de Lima y Callao, the largest gas distribution company in Peru, has received its second rating upgrade of the year after Moody’s pushed the borrower up by one notch to Baa2.

Faro Energy, which develops solar energy projects in Brazil and Colombia, has sold a green bond to finance distributed solar power projects, said the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI).

Though market tone has shown a marked improvement over the last week, Lat Am bond buyers say that they are not expecting to see much new supply until September — and nor do they want any.