South America

Below-freezing temperatures in New York that left several EM bond market participants working from home on Thursday could not stop Latin American borrowers from bringing early heat to 2018.

Two Brazilian companies could tap international bond markets as soon as next week after announcing fixed income investor meetings.

Emerging market bond fund managers say they are markedly more optimistic than 12 months ago when the "whole world was negative" after the start of Donald Trump’s US presidential term. And with plenty of sovereign trades rumoured for January, there is an abundance of investment opportunities.

After a record 2017, Latin America bond markets had a quiet start to 2018 on Tuesday but syndicate bankers covering the region said that they had a hefty pipeline and would start bringing deals as soon as possible.

Luis Caputo, Argentina’s finance minister, said that the sovereign will raise $30bn of new debt across domestic and external markets in 2018, as the government intends to continue reducing its financing from the central bank.

Brazilian low cost airline Gol is set to buy back more bonds after investors owning $21.191m of its existing 9.25% 2020s agreed to sell their notes as part of a tender offer launched on December 14.

One of Argentina’s poorest provinces is considering returning to international bond markets in January, according to buy-side sources in Buenos Aires.

Former president Sebastián Piñera won Chile’s elections on Sunday to book himself a second stint in charge of the Latin American country with the best credit rating. But though Chilean bonds rallied marginally on the news, analysts say the incoming leader faces a struggle to make significant policy changes.

Brazilian low-cost airline Gol has announced its latest liability management efforts: a $50m tender offer for its outstanding 2020s and a redemption of three small bonds issued as part of a distressed debt exchange last year.

Rutas al Mar, the toll road being built between Colombia’s Antioquia and Bolivar states, became the third concessionaire in the country’s 4G infrastructure project to issue bonds last week.

Mexican payroll lender Alpha Holdings sold its inaugural cross-border bond deal on Tuesday, becoming the latest in a growing group of Lat Am non-bank lenders to have issued internationally.

Colombian asset prices hardly budged this week after Standard & Poor’s brought the South American sovereign — once an EM darling — within one notch of junk status.