South America

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.

Consorcio Transmantaro, the Peruvian transmission company, added $200m to its green bonds maturing in 2034 on Wednesday.

The world’s largest independent McDonald’s franchisee, Arcos Dorados, is planning to tap its senior unsecured bonds due 2027 as it looks to refinance debt raised to tackle the Covid-19 crisis.

Consorcio Transmantaro, the Peruvian transmission company and one of the few Latin American issuers to have improved its credit profile this year, is turning to bond markets for the first time since April 2019 to finance investments.

Banco Hipotecario, the Argentine bank focussed on mortgage and consumer loans, is asking holders of a dollar bond maturing in less than three months to swap their paper for a new 2025 bond and cash. If bondholders do not accept the terms, default is likely, says Moody’s.

Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer began investor calls on Tuesday as it prepares its first new issue since several ratings downgrades earlier in the year.