South America

Entre Ríos, the only Argentine province to have faced legal proceedings as a result of the past year’s wave of bond defaults, looks set to avoid a legal battle after reaching a restructuring agreement with the creditors that had pursued it in a US court.

Peruvian mining company Volcán said on Saturday that holders of around two thirds of its $535.264m 5.375% 2022 bond had participated in a tender offer for the issue. But the borrower will only accept 35.5% of the amount tendered, and will use the majority of the proceeds of its recent five year bond issue to pay back a bank loan also maturing next year.

Argentine oil and gas company YPF will avoid a hard default after the country’s central bank, the Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA) agreed to provide the issuer with sufficient dollars not just to complete a bond swap, but also to make a maturity payment on March 23 to creditors that did not participate in the company's recent debt exchange.

Uruguay’s dollar bonds are hot property, but the sovereign is planning to focus its international bond issuance efforts on its domestic currency in 2021 as it looks to develop the peso market and increase the share of its debt burden in the currency.

EM bond buyers gave Guara Norte, a special purpose vehicle for Brazilian floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit Cidade de Ilhabela, a warm welcome on its first bond market outing as investors say that emerging market high yield corporates offer the best chance for outperformance.

Argentine oil and gas company YPF amended its proposed bond exchange for the fourth time on Sunday evening, again upping the cash payment for holders of its March 2021s in a move that the issuer says has the support of the most stubborn group of bondholders.

Peruvian government-owned oil company Petroperu clinched most of the remaining financing of the long-awaited modernisation of its Talara refinery on Thursday, opting to reopen bonds first issued three years ago at a high dollar price rather than place a new benchmark.

Brazilian auto parts supplier Tupy and Peruvian mining company Volcán became the latest in a string of Latin American high yield companies to take advantage of extremely welcoming bond markets to improve their maturity profiles.

Bonds issued by Argentine oil and gas company YPF were up and down this week before ending largely flat as the company failed to find a consensus among investors regarding its proposed exchange offer. A March 23 maturity payment looms large.

DCM bankers said that more Lat Am borrowers who postponed bond issues last year could be tempted into a welcoming market after customer relationship management (CRM) company Atento picked a strong day to refinance a 2022 maturity.

Fonplata, the South American supranational development bank, raised Sfr200m ($222m) of 5.5-year bonds in the Swiss franc market on Wednesday, increasing the size of the deal from an initially planned Sfr150m.

After receiving a strong response to a cash tender offer for its only previous international bond, Brazilian waterway logistics services provider Hidrovias do Brasil notched an eight times subscribed order book on its way to a $500m 10-year non-call five deal on Wednesday.