South America

Mining firm Compañía de Minas Buenaventura sent a strong message about Peruvian companies’ access to capital markets on Tuesday, pricing its debut bond issue through guidance the day after Pedro Castillo — a leftist teacher who has pledged to hike taxes on miners and redraft the country’s constitution — was confirmed as Peru’s next president.

SMI Group, which makes plastic packaging in nine Latin American countries, began investor calls on Tuesday ahead of a proposed sustainability-linked bond.

Chilean electricity transmission company Interchile sold its first international bond on Monday, braving difficult market conditions to raise $1.2bn of green bonds.

A group of bondholders has hired lawyers in an effort to block a proposed consent solicitation from Argentine utility Edenor that seeks to free the issuer of its obligation to repurchase its bonds after a change of control provision in the indenture was triggered.

Peru published its sustainable bond framework on Friday, after the finance ministry issued a resolution approving the document and therefore paving the way for the incoming government to issue what would be the country’s first sovereign ESG bond.

Continued strong inflows into emerging markets debt funds are encouraging riskier Latin American companies to turn to debt markets for funding — even as political risks weigh heavily on the outlook for certain credits. While some buyers think they are picking up rare bargains, others are concerned that they’re becoming overexposed to the region.

Chile’s head of international finance told GlobalCapital this week that the country was likely to tap euro and dollar bond markets again this year after it increased its 2021 funding needs by $8bn.

Frigorífico Concepción, the Paraguay beef exporter, sold its largest and tightest ever bond on Wednesday as it looked to continue its rapid expansion.

Interchile, the Chilean electricity transmission company owned by Colombian government-controlled conglomerate ISA, began investor calls on Tuesday ahead of a potential green bond issue.

LatAm bond buyers said that MC Brazil Downstream Trading’s debut bond issue on Tuesday had offered a rare chance to pick up yield in large size, as the company’s $1.8bn 10 year was spotted a point and a half higher in the grey market after pricing.

Compañía de Minas Buenaventura will provide a stern test of appetite for Peruvian risk under new leftist president Pedro Castillo this week as it seeks an inaugural bond issue that it will use to repay a tax liability.

After Brazilian pulp and paper producer Suzano became the first Latin American company to issue a second sustainability-linked bond, its treasury director told GlobalCapital he expects investors to differentiate more and more between SLB issuers based on the issuer’s ESG credentials.