South America

Three Latin America companies sold new bonds to buy back old ones this week as investor appetite shows no sign of letting up.

Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (SCIB), Banco Santander’s investment banking unit, has appointed Marcel Patiño from Itaú BBA as its new head of Santander SCIB Colombia.

Peruvian holding company Intercorp Peru issued more debt than initially intended on Wednesday after notching a heavily oversubscribed order book in its first international trade since 2015.

Brazilian conglomerate Cosan returned to bond markets on Wednesday with a $750m 10 year non-call five year trade that bankers on the deal said landed close to fair value.

Colombian airline Avianca will use a par exchange to attempt to tackle a $550m May 2020 bond maturity, offering noteholders collateral and potential for a coupon increase — if the company is able to renegotiate certain loans.

Brazilian airline Gol reopened its convertible bonds for a further $80m last week, taking advantage of a strong performance of its existing bonds and stock to achieve pricing that the CFO described as “fantastic” and leave the company in a position to continue its liability management.

Latin American borrowers continue to make up for lost time amid encouraging issuance conditions as debt capital markets bankers say a few more could sneak through to primary markets before the August break.

Peruvian holding company Intercorp Peru is looking to tap bond investors for dollar and nuevo sol denominated funding as it seeks to refinance existing bonds and invest in its subsidiaries.

Petrobras will buy back $1.79bn of dollar bonds to go with the $639m-equivalent it spent repurchasing sterling and euro notes last week, but the Brazilian state-owned oil giant’s debt buy-back looks set to fall below the $3bn target on this occasion.

The consortium building the second line of the Lima and Callao Metro in Peru will meet bond investors this week as it looks to finance a mandatory redemption of a portion of the borrower’s existing notes caused by delays in the project.

Five Latin American companies and Caribbean-based Cable & Wireless (C&W) all sold dollar deals on Thursday, as borrowers jumped on improved expectations of a US rate cut and seemed to shrug off a sell-off in US Treasuries later in the day.

Argentina’s leading telecoms company became the latest borrower from the country to tap international investors on Thursday, but though bond investors showed plenty of enthusiasm for Telecom Argentina’s bond comeback, some were wary about oversupply from the country.