South America

Argentine corporate bonds sold off sharply on Wednesday after the central bank sought to dictate how the issuers could refinance their dollar debt as part of an escalation of currency controls.

Brazilian foods company BRF fetched a 10 times oversubscribed order book on its way to a 30-year benchmark on Wednesday as appetite for Latin American risk remains irrepressible.

Latin American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) will continue to monitor its members’ needs before determining how much funding it has left to raise in 2020, but has covered the majority of its financing needs after increasing the size of a dollar benchmark, priced on Wednesday.

South America’s largest corn-based ethanol producer, FS Agrisolutions Indústria de Biocombustíveis (FS), will look to become the latest Latin American borrower to sell a sustainability-themed bond as it proposes a green format for its international market debut.

Brazilian food company BRF is planning a new dollar bond to finance a buy-back of euro and dollar notes maturing between 2022 and 2026 as investors say the protein sector’s strong performance this year means conditions are ideal for liability management trades.

Latin American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) set pricing on Tuesday for a five-year dollar bond, having already gathered enough indications of interest overnight on Monday to cover what had been announced as a $500m deal.

Last week’s flurry of new deals from Latin America were performing well on Friday as cash continues to flow into EM bond funds. The region looks well placed for a busy September of primary market activity, say bankers.

The Argentine province of Córdoba’s bondholders have said that the issuer is asking for more debt relief than it needs with a proposal to push out maturities and reduce coupons on three bonds maturing in 2021, 2024 and 2027. The group has submitted a counterproposal that would simply extend the maturity on the 2021s without reducing the coupon, and leave the other two bonds untouched.

It is rare for one issuer to recognise another's bond issue, but Enel's chief financial officer went to the trouble on Friday of issuing a statement to commend the previous day's sustainability-linked bond issue by Suzano, the Brazilian pulp and paper company which is unaffiliated with Enel.

Emerging markets issuers flocked to bond markets this week with impressive results, despite severe weaknesses in equity and oil markets. A 20bp negative concession for Brazil’s Suzano on Thursday, on the first sustainability-linked bond ever from an EM issuer, wrapped a hectic week as investors dived into the higher yielding asset classes. Mariam Meskin and Oliver West report.

At least 12 Argentine provinces are either deep in restructuring talks with bondholders or are preparing to begin negotiations. But as Argentina’s finance minister Martín Guzmán calls for regional governments to renegotiate their debts in line with the federal government’s sustainability guidelines, investors are unlikely to grant the same level of debt relief they agreed with the sovereign.

Brazil’s largest independent oil and gas company, Petro Rio, will begin investor calls on Thursday ahead of a proposed debut bond issue that bankers say will test the strength of the market like no other Latin American issuer this month.