South America

Two companies turned up the heat another notch in Latin American primary bond markets on Wednesday, as both Coca-Cola Femsa and CMPC sold 10 year deals inside the ranges they had indicated at guidance.

Colombia’s largest lender Bancolombia said it wants return to bond markets to finance a buy-back of a senior bond maturing in 18 months.

Santander’s Chilean arm on Tuesday joined the early wave of dollar issuers from the country, pricing a $750m five senior unsecured bond 2bp inside where state-owned Banco del Estado de Chile sold an identical trade a day earlier.

Termocandelaria Power Limited, the Colombian generation company, is seeking to add up to $200m to its existing bonds and has mandated two banks to lead the reopening.

The world’s largest copper producer, Codelco, returned to bond markets on Tuesday with a well received $2bn dual tranche as predictions that Chilean issuers would be very active in January begin to look very accurate.

State-owned lender Banco del Estado de Chile (Banco Estado) kicked off what could be a busy January for Chilean issuance with a $750m five year senior unsecured deal on Monday.

Chile’s head of international finance has told GlobalCapital that the debt management office is making communication with investors its number one priority as it announced borrowing plans — including an atypically large amount of international issuance — earlier than usual after a turbulent fourth quarter.

Brazilian meatpacker Marfrig said last week that it would redeem $446m of bonds issued three years ago, to improve its debt profile.

Latin American bond bankers are reporting busy January pipelines as issuers look to take advantage of low rates before the US election season hits next year.

Big European investment banks pivoted towards the Americas during 2019 in an attempt to boost revenues and position themselves for the next downturn, writes David Rothnie. With large M&A across the industry still off the table, banks are finding scale through joint ventures and alliances.

A group of institutional investors owning Argentine government bonds said on Tuesday that they have hired Mens Sana — which is also advising creditors of the Province of Buenos Aires — and UBS as financial advisors ahead of a likely sovereign restructuring.

Standard & Poor’s on Monday became the third rating agency to react to political uncertainty in Bolivia, by putting its BB- rating on negative outlook. Yet its bond prices have begun to recover.