South America

Paraguay’s largest commercial lender, Banco Continental, hopes its planned issuance of sustainability bonds will be an example for other issuers to follow, stating in its sustainability bond framework that its commitment to sustainable development is “inherently linked” to Paraguay’s historical dependence on the agriculture and livestock sectors.

The Province of Neuquén has become the fourth Argentine regional or local government to wrap up a debt restructuring this year. But with most provincial issuers struggling to reach agreements with creditors, several provinces’ bondholders have joined forces to bolster their negotiating position. This may help bondholders force the provinces to offer deals that are better than those the national government wants both sides to make.

Peru plans to return to its pre-pandemic strategy of focussing raising its funding from local currency markets, said the country’s director of public treasury after the sovereign became the fourth Latin American sovereign to sell a century bond on Monday as part of a $4bn deal.

Peru grabbed the bond market’s attention on Monday with a $4bn triple-tranche issue including a 100 year bond despite the country being on its third president this month. But the country’s public treasury director said it was the all-in yield, not the desire to make headlines, that drove Peru to become the fourth Latin American borrower ever to sell a century bond.

Peru will become the fourth Latin American borrower to issue a century bond on Monday, selling a triple-tranche dollar issue including a 100-year bond despite the fact that the the country is on its third president this month.

International investors have remained sanguine about the chances of a restructuring of Bolivia’s sovereign bonds even after the finance minister said the recently elected government was seeking payment relief on some external debt.

Julio Velarde, the governor of the central bank of Peru (BCRP), insisted that the country had broad access to international financial markets as the sovereign’s bond spreads more than recovered the ground lost during recent political volatility.

Bond buyers snapped up three debut issuers from Latin America in the space of two days this week, jumping at rare chances to add variety and — in certain cases — juicier yields to their portfolios.

Chile increased its first social bond on Thursday, returning to the Euroclearable peso market for the first time in 18 months with a deal that bankers said had higher international participation than expected.

Digital retailer B2W attracted a huge book on its bond market debut on Wednesday, tightening pricing to land just an 0.125% in yield terms wide of its parent company, Brazilian retail giant Lojas Americanas.

Chile will look to sell $1.8bn-equivalent of Euroclearable, peso-denominated domestic law bonds to local and international investors on Thursday, according to the finance ministry.

Peruvian private healthcare provider Auna sold its first international bond on Tuesday, overcoming major political volatility in its home country as bankers said the limited offering of Peruvian corporate paper played in the issuer’s favour.