South America

As sovereigns and corporates from all corners of the word suffer rating downgrades at an alarming rate, Brazilian meatpacker JBS bucked the trend on Tuesday as Fitch upgraded the borrower to BB+, just one notch away from investment grade status.

Nexa Resources, the mining arm of Brazilian conglomerate Votorantim, overcame a soft start to the week in international markets to raise $500m on Monday, with investors saying the company had offered a generous pick-up to its existing notes.

Peru’s largest financial group, Credicorp, tapped international bond markets for $500m on Wednesday, becoming the first debut issuer from Latin America since the Covid-19 crisis began.

Bond investors and analysts expect Argentina to extend Friday’s restructuring deadline yet again amid continued promising signs that a deal is near, but some warn it is wrong to assume an agreement is a foregone conclusion.

A group of institutional investors owning bonds issued by the Argentine Province of Córdoba has hired BroadSpan Capital and Mens Sana Advisors as financial advisors as the province works on a restructuring of its $1.685bn of international bonds.

Peru’s largest financial group Credicorp tapped international bond markets for $500m on Wednesday, maintaining a robust order book even as it tightened pricing by more than 50bp.

Bond buyers are showing interest in Peru’s nuevo sol denominated paper amid a sharp increase in EM risk appetite, according to the government’s public treasury director, even as Fitch downgraded the sovereign’s local currency debt rating last week.

While leading economists fret about a reckoning to come for emerging market debt in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, for vast swathes of EM issuers bond market business is brisk. Despite dire data and forecasts, dollar funding costs for some sovereigns are nearing pre-crisis levels as investors grasp at any sort of yield. The rally may have further to run, write Ross Lancaster and Oliver West.

Brazil became the third Latin American issuer in three days to find bond buyers willing to place large orders even as pricing was pushed below their initial demands, as it raised $3.5bn of five and 10 year paper to provide arguably the starkest example yet that technicals are trumping fundamentals primary emerging market new issues.

Colombia may have arrived late to the coronavirus-era Latin American sovereign bond market party, but the wait paid off on Monday as the sovereign notched a dual tranche $2.5bn issue that included its lowest ever coupon on a long dated bond.

Argentina said on Monday evening that a new proposal to creditors was imminent after the government again extended the participation deadline in its restructuring. Optimism continues to grow over the chances of an agreement — even as an IMF statement on the process triggered forthright responses from bondholders.

Latin American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento expects the social bond universe to grow after bringing forward its debut social bond to raise funds for its Covid-19 mitigation efforts.