South America

Paraguay wrapped up two days of investor meetings on Wednesday, and the South American sovereign will have New York bond syndicate desks wishing it the best of luck if it announces a new deal on Thursday — as expected.

One of the Venezuela analysts most keenly followed by the country’s bondholders will lead opposition candidate Henri Falcón’s economic team in the run up to this year’s presidential elections, which the largest opposition party is boycotting.

After weeks of speculation, Paraguay will finally hit the road next week as Lat Am syndicate bankers point out that spreads in the region have recovered well after a turbulent month.

In the wake of Venezuela’s launch of petro, an oil-backed digital currency under the control of the nation’s central bank, a host of sovereign cryptocurrency products have emerged. For some nations, it is a ploy to circumvent sanctions but, for others, it could provide an important piece of future infrastructure for blockchain based settlement.

After yet another quiet day in Latin American bond markets on Monday, syndicate bankers said that the return of new issuance after a more than two week hiatus would likely commence after two key speeches from Jay Powell, the new US Federal Reserve chair.

Colombia’s bonds have hardly moved in secondaries since Moody’s placed its Baa2 rating on negative outlook last week, although the sovereign’s debt had already widened heavily over the last few weeks.

Venezuela’s cryptocurrency plans were met with a dismissive reaction from Lat Am bond market participants this week, who questioned the value of any currency issued by the defaulting government.

At least two Latin American borrowers opted to delay new issue announcements this week as syndicate bankers suggested the names in the pipeline would be more demanding on pricing than their CEEMEA counterparts that did issue.

Venezuela has become the first sovereign nation to launch a cryptocurrency. While few outside Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s administration are impressed by the pioneering venture, others are expected to follow suit nonetheless, write Lewis McLellan, Costas Mourselas and Oliver West.

US market volatility has kept Latin American primary bonds silent for nine straight business after what had been a record start to the year. But even though EM borrowers from other parts of the world are this week pricing deals, Lat Am bankers are in no hurry to bring new debt issuance from the region while the volatility persists.

Banco Supervielle, the Argentine lender, is looking to increase the size of its existing bond shelf from $800m to $2.3bn, according to a regulatory filing.

The UK Embassy in Peru and Bolsa de Valores de Lima (BVL), the Lima Stock Exchange, have launched plans for what would be the first green bond market in South America, following a similar initiative in Mexico.