South America

Brazilian food group BRF priced a new larger than expected 10 year at a tighter than excepted yield as Lat Am’s strong September continued apace after a one day break for the US Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday.

A change in CEO slightly delayed Banco Votorantim’s return to bond markets but the Brazilian bank had no trouble finding demand when it announced a dual tranche on Tuesday nearly two weeks after the end of its roadshow.

Brazilian state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras issued a new long 10 year of more than $4bn via an exchange offer on Monday and the note immediately jumped above par.

Brazilian lender Banco Votorantim found ample demand for a dual tranche issue on Tuesday after waiting nearly two weeks from the end of its roadshow to announce a deal. Compatriot food company BRF could now bring a deal a little quicker having concluded its own investor meetings.

Brazilian state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras will issue a new long 10 year of over $4bn after existing bondholders agreed to participate in an exchange offer that will see them swap old notes for a combination of cash and new paper.

Avianca took a step closer to drastically improving its liquidity profile after 86.4% of its bondholders agreed to participate in a bond exchange that could unlock up to $250m of new funding from United Airlines and the Colombian firm’s second largest shareholder, Kingsland Holdings.

The same capital controls that have brought some calm to Argentine bond markets could lead to the exclusion of certain government notes from some JP Morgan indices, said the US bank on Tuesday.

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras will continue to push out its debt maturities and reduce its outstanding stock of bonds with an exchange and tender offer that includes retiring existing notes using cash.

Argentina’s dollar bonds bounced as much as five points this week as investors were finally tempted to nibble at the distressed levels on offer. But analysts warned that the capital controls imposed by authorities would provide only short-term relief.

Clarity on the costs that Brazilian mining giant Vale will face as a result of a tragic accident at one of its dams in January has led Moody’s to remove the negative outlook from the company’s Ba1 rating.

Moody’s said on Friday that it was placing “little weight” on the suggestion that a debt restructuring in Argentina would be voluntary. Sunday’s announcement of currency controls from the central bank showed how bad the situation had become.

Bond market participants said that Argentina’s decision to postpone the payments of some short-term Treasury bills and “re-profile” the rest of its debt was unlikely to provide a sustainable solution to the country’s financial woes.