South America

With Argentina's elections days away, the fate of the country’s $56bn International Monetary Fund bailout plan will depend on the attitude taken by Alberto Fernández, the odds-on favourite to be the next president, said bondholders.

Celulosa Arauco y Constitución, the Chilean pulp and wood panel producer, is looking to issue what it describes as a “sustainability” bond, as Chile’s focus on environmental topics spreads to the corporate world.

Ministers from Argentina are flying into Washington this week but with elections just days away, the fate of the country’s IMF bailout plan will depend on the attitude taken by Alberto Fernández, the odds-on favourite to be the next president.

Colombian airline Avianca has pushed out the deadline on its bond exchange by two weeks as continues negotiations with its broader creditor base on a restructuring of its debt.

One of the strongest credits in Argentina will seek to entice bondholders to push out maturities by turning a portion of its existing bond into cash and increasing the coupon on the remaining amount.

Colombian natural gas distribution company Promigas and Rutas 2 and 7, a securitization to finance a road in Paraguay, brought life to an otherwise subdued week in Latin American primary markets on Tuesday.

One of the strongest credits in Argentina will look to entice bondholders to push out maturities by turning a portion of its existing bond into cash and increasing the coupon on the remaining amount.

A recent innovation in the green bond market — the transition bond — could help expand the issuer base, according to Credit Suisse’s head of environmental, social and governance strategy. But an investor said the standard of green bonds needed to be maintained.

Colombian natural gas distribution company Promigas had a smooth time on its first international bond market outing. Bankers said new issue markets in Latin America would continue to tick over, despite political volatility across the region.

The Inter-American Development Bank has published a report promoting the use of covered bonds as a funding tool for green developments in Latin America and the Caribbean. But it remains to be seen whether risk-averse covered bond investors are ready to take the plunge into emerging markets — particularly given regulatory hurdles in the swaps market.

Chilean copper miner Codelco is having trouble persuading existing note holders to part with their paper, after printing $2bn of new debt at record low yields in September.

Crisis-hit countries that go through a painful debt restructuring programme as part of a bailout enjoy much steeper cuts in their medium-term debt, according to an independent analysis of International Monetary Fund rescue programmes.