South America

Fitch assigned a negative outlook to Latin America’s best-rated sovereign, Chile, on Tuesday as years of low growth finally catch up with the region’s most stable credits.

Fitch said on Tuesday that there would be “no respite” for Latin American corporates in 2017 after record high defaults this year, although not all bond investors share the rating agency’s gloom.

Things may finally be looking up for Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção (OEC), the engineering and construction arm of Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, after it came to a leniency agreement with Brazilian, US and Swiss authorities regarding its involvement in the Lava Jato corruption scandal.

Chilean retailer SMU appears to be putting the worst of its financial troubles behind it as Moody’s granted the borrower another rating upgrade.

Pulp and paper producer Suzano has sold its second green bond and the first in Brazil’s domestic markets.

PDVSA is doing itself no favours by bending the truth about its financial situation. Bondholders are under no illusions about its troubles, so the company might as well be open with them.

Pulp and paper producer Suzano has sold its second green bond and the first in Brazil’s domestic markets.

PDVSA is doing itself no favours by bending the truth about its financial situation. Bondholders are under no illusions about its troubles, so the company might as well be open with them.

Brazilian steel company Usiminas, which restructured its bank loans and domestic debt in September, has said it will attempt an exchange of its dollar 2018 bonds, which were not part of the restructuring.

Santander Chile, which sent a strong message about its financing capabilities with two consecutive deals immediately after the US election result, will adapt to the Trump era with more international bond issuance, the bank’s CFO told GlobalCapital.

Whether PDVSA bondholders choose to believe JP Morgan’s EM research team, or if they agree with the Venezuelan company’s CEO that the US bank is an “enemy of the fatherland”, they cannot have had a particularly reassuring run-up to Thanksgiving, after the borrower’s coupon payments went missing. Oliver West reports.

The row over PDVSA’s late coupon payments ran into Tuesday with the Venezuelan state oil giant’s CEO claiming that the company had met with “all of its bond payments”.