South America

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.

State-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras finally brought some bond supply from Brazil on Wednesday but, as the new issue traded down on the break, bankers said few Latin American issuers were likely to be persuaded of the benefits of tapping international markets in the short term.

A strong bid from ESG investors helped Latin American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) to €700m of social bond issuance on Wednesday as the multilateral looks to fund its efforts to support the region through the Covid-19 crisis.

Investors and bankers said that Petrobras had achieved exceptionally tight pricing on Wednesday as the oil and gas giant became the first Brazilian issuer to tap international bond markets in times of coronavirus amid a strong rally in corporate paper from the country.

Alantra is buffing its credit portfolio advisory team with the addition of Marcus Evans and Christos Stefanidis, who will join as managing directors in the UK and Greece. The credit portfolio advisory firm is also opening up offices in Latin America and China.

Rating agencies say that senior unsecured bondholders in Latam Airlines face bleak recovery prospects after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the largest airline in Latin America to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.

Argentina officially entered default for the ninth time on May 22 as the grace period expired on $503m of overdue coupon payments. However, there is increased optimism that the sovereign will reach an agreement with bondholders after the largest creditor group said “direct and immediate discussion” was required.