Argentina

The City of Buenos Aires lived up to its reputation as the best sub-sovereign credit in Argentina after pricing a new bond just 50bp over where leads believed the sovereign would have sold a new 10 year.

The City of Buenos Aires is set to issue a new 11 year amortiser on Tuesday after announcing initial price thoughts that will make it the tightest of all the recent sub-sovereigns to have issued in Argentina.

The City of Buenos Aires is set to sell up to $890m of bonds as soon as Tuesday as it looks to take advantage of what one Buenos Aires-based banker described investors as “drunk” on Argentina risk.

Mortgage lender Banco Hipotecario took advantage of the momentum surrounding Argentine bonds on Wednesday with a tap of its senior unsecured 2020s more than six and a half points above where they were first sold in November.

Argentina made its debut in the international capital markets 192 years ago. It has managed eight defaults since then, so are things any different now?

Banco Hipotecario is set to demonstrate the immediate benefits that Argentina’s corporates could receive from the sovereign’s return to bond markets when it taps its 2020s on Tuesday.

The City of Buenos Aires is set to become the third Argentine sub-sovereign to tap international bond markets since the sovereign sold $16.5bn of debt in April.

Bankers said that Argentina’s grand capital markets plan was functioning perfectly after Mendoza became the second province to tap international capital markets since the sovereign raised $16.5bn in April.

The province of Mendoza was heard to have built a twice subscribed order book the day before pricing an eight year amortising bond that would make it the second Argentine issuer to have tapped international investors since the sovereign returned to the market in April.

Banco Hipotecario, the mortgage lender 58.4% owned by the Argentine government, is looking to raise between $100m-$200m via a tap of its 9.75% 2020 notes sold last November.

The Argentine province of Neuquén raised $235m of bonds this week, pricing at a yield more than 150bp less than where it had talked about a similar deal last September. The province's deal is the first Argentine bond since the sovereign’s blowout return to bond markets last month.

Mendoza has joined Neuquén in the rush to become the first Argentine region to follow the sovereign’s recent $16.5bn bond market comeback and has mandated banks for a dollar bond.