Brazil

Covid-19 has made combining market-friendly economic policy with retaining popular support even trickier than usual for Latin America's politicians. In turn, it has become harder for bondholders to read the political tea leaves when weighing up where their money is best parked. For instance, investors who once loved Jair Bolsonaro's Brazil are now high-tailing it to other markets, including El Salvador, where another populist has just won power. In a busy year for LatAm elections, and with the pandemic still raging, allocating capital in the region's bond markets will be trickier than usual.

Beef exporter Minerva navigated another volatile day for Brazilian assets to raise $1bn of new 10-year non-call five notes on Wednesday, offering a slight pick-up to rival Marfrig that bankers saw as justified given Marfrig’s larger size and US operations.

South America’s largest beef exporter, Minerva, will look to price a new 10 year non-call five bond on Wednesday as part of a liability management exercise that will be debt-neutral or debt-negative.

Brazilian mining giant Vale said on Friday that it plans to prepay its €750m January 2023s as record iron ore prices allowed it to build cash levels greater than its gross debt.

Emerging market assets took a hit after several days of US rates volatility this week as market participants braced for further gyrations and issuers avoided raising dollar bonds. Market participants are praying that further central bank stimulus will pacify markets and believe that the asset class is far better prepared for higher rates than it was for the 2013 taper tantrum. Oliver West, Lewis McLellan and Mariam Meskin report.

Spreads on Petrobras’s bonds recovered most of their lost ground this week after a sharp sell-off followed Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro sacking the company’s chief executive on Monday. But while strong quarterly results released on Wednesday were a reminder of the state-owned oil and gas giant’s fundamental strength, Bolsonaro’s actions have led to questions around policy decisions in an economy with major fiscal issues.

Petrobras bonds slumped on Monday after Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro nominated retired general and former defence minister Joaquim Silva de Luna to be the state-owned oil and gas giant’s new CEO. One analyst decried “corporate statism” as others saw the decision as a warning about the direction of Brazil’s fiscal policy.

EM bond buyers gave Guara Norte, a special purpose vehicle for Brazilian floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit Cidade de Ilhabela, a warm welcome on its first bond market outing as investors say that emerging market high yield corporates offer the best chance for outperformance.

Peruvian government-owned oil company Petroperu clinched most of the remaining financing of the long-awaited modernisation of its Talara refinery on Thursday, opting to reopen bonds first issued three years ago at a high dollar price rather than place a new benchmark.

Brazilian auto parts supplier Tupy and Peruvian mining company Volcán became the latest in a string of Latin American high yield companies to take advantage of extremely welcoming bond markets to improve their maturity profiles.

DCM bankers said that more Lat Am borrowers who postponed bond issues last year could be tempted into a welcoming market after customer relationship management (CRM) company Atento picked a strong day to refinance a 2022 maturity.

After receiving a strong response to a cash tender offer for its only previous international bond, Brazilian waterway logistics services provider Hidrovias do Brasil notched an eight times subscribed order book on its way to a $500m 10-year non-call five deal on Wednesday.