South America

Bondholders appeared confident that a late attempt to derail Colombian-Canadian oil company Pacific Exploration & Production’s planned restructuring with Catalyst Capital would not succeed after creditors overwhelmingly approved the proposed reorganisation.

Less than 12 hours before a creditor meeting to approve its drawn-out restructuring, Canadian-Colombian oil company Pacific Exploration & Production said on Tuesday evening that it had received a letter proposing an “alternative transaction”.

trueEX, the interest rate swap trading platform, has begun providing execution of Brazilian real swaps cleared at CME Group.

One of Argentina’s poorest provinces, Chaco, had some bankers and investors eating their words after it sold $250m of bonds on Wednesday and found enough residual demand to trade up by 50-75 cents on Thursday.

Chilean state-owned lender Banco del Estado de Chile raised ¥15bn ($147m) in 10 year bonds this week through a tap of its 'women bonds' initially issued in June.

The province of Chaco, one of the poorest in Argentina, sold $250m of bonds with an average life of seven years on Wednesday and then saw them edge upwards on the break despite scepticism from market participants about the borrower’s credit quality.

The province of Chaco is set to provide a test of demand for Argentine credit with a dollar issue on Wednesday, as bankers and investors acknowledged that favourable market conditions gave the province a good chance of a successful deal despite challenging fundamentals.

A welcome trio of non-Argentine corporate issuers provided variety to the Latin American new issue market this week, with all three achieving the rare distinction of being praised by DCM bankers both for their timing and for not pushing investors too hard on pricing.

EM bond investors said they expected a strong local bid to push new bonds from Chilean government-owned oil company Empresa Nacional de Petróleo (Enap) tighter after the company raised $700m of 10 year senior unsecured bonds on Tuesday.

Lat Am bond bankers said Brazilian mining giant Vale had timed its second bond issue of the year to perfection, but the bond left investors happy too as it popped in the grey market on Wednesday.

CEEMEA is focused on one issuer this week, Ghana, as Latin America borrowers ignore the summer break.

Chile’s national oil company Enap raised $700m of senior unsecured bonds on Tuesday as an attractive new issue concession tempted investors despite the company’s high leverage.