South America

Cablevision, Argentina’s leading pay TV and broadband provider, will look to revive the country’s corporate bond market with a $500m deal to refinance existing debt.

Enduring optimism about Argentina’s economic prospects, increased funding from the federal government and the chance for investors to pick up significant spreads over the sovereign will continue to allow Argentine sub-sovereigns to tap international bond market in volume, said market participants.

Brazilian meatpacker Marfrig increased the size of a new bond by 50% and still saw it trade two points above reoffer the day after pricing this week as Lat Am syndicate bankers said they were lining up more corporate issuance from beleaguered Brazil.

Meatpacker Marfrig increased the size of the its new seven year non-call three bond from $500m to $750m to send a message that, in the case of certain issuers at least, Brazil is back.

The Argentine province that analysts consider to be the strongest of those left to issue this year will meet bond investors next week ahead of a potential $1bn bond.

Derivatives traders this week took the resignation of Brazilian planning minister Romero Juca in their stride, leaving key measures of risk largely unchanged.

The City of Buenos Aires lived up to its reputation as the best sub-sovereign credit in Argentina after pricing a new bond just 50bp over where leads believed the sovereign would have sold a new 10 year.

Meatpacker Marfrig announced initial price thoughts low to mid 8% area for a new seven year non-call three bond expected to be priced on Wednesday, with S&P so impressed by the company’s capital market activity that it assigned a positive outlook to the rating.

The City of Buenos Aires is set to issue a new 11 year amortiser on Tuesday after announcing initial price thoughts that will make it the tightest of all the recent sub-sovereigns to have issued in Argentina.

Meatpacker Marfrig will meet investors this week as it looks to show that the poor secondary market performance of Petrobras’ new bond will not damage Brazilian companies’ ambitions of returning to markets.

Peruvian power generation company Kallpa became the first Peruvian issuer apart from the sovereign to issue international bonds as strong local interest helped it to navigate a turbulent market on Thursday.

Latin America bond bankers put on brave faces after Petrobras’ return to bond markets soured when its new 10 year traded down as much as five points just two days after pricing. Oliver West reports.