Brazil

Two of Latin America’s most established borrowers, the Colombian sovereign and Brazilian bank Itaú, returned to international bond markets on Tuesday. Though both issues were priced roughly as expected, bankers on and away from the trades said there were signs that Lat Am’s roaring start to 2021 was losing steam.

The Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples has written an open letter to BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink, who is expected to publish his annual letter to stakeholders this week. Apib wants BlackRock to end what it calls its “complicity” in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and to consult indigenous people as it finalises its new policy on biodiversity and deforestation.

Six of the 11 Latin American borrowers to have priced or announced new cross-border bonds so far in 2021 have opted to show off their ESG credentials while doing so — either through dedicating the use of proceeds or by issuing in the more novel sustainability-linked format. Brazil is leading the way, with three further mandates on Monday.

Latin America’s largest e-commerce company MercadoLibre and Mexican cement maker Cemex kept up the hectic conditions in the LatAm primary bond market on Thursday, with the huge order book on MercadoLibre’s inaugural bond issue the clearest indication of risk appetite among EM buyers.

Emerging markets issuers of all flavours ignored convention and stormed into primary bond markets this week, with great success. Renewed warnings about increasing debt ratios in emerging nations were no match for an extraordinarily supportive technical picture as investors piled into deals — even as Democratic victories in US Senate run-offs pushed rates higher. Mariam Meskin and Oliver West report.

Latin American DCM bankers hailed Brazilian paper company Klabin’s first sustainability-linked bond (SLB) as an encouraging sign for the ESG debt market in the region, as a huge order book allowed the issuer to tighten by 55bp from initial price thoughts and land well inside its curve.

Bankers said that Brazilian bank BTG Pactual achieved tighter pricing on its green bond than it would have done on a conventional bond, after it became the first Latin American private sector bank to issue such a benchmark in US markets.

Brazilian bank BTG Pactual became the third Latin American issuer to announce plans to issue ESG-related debt this year after it mandated for a potential senior unsecured green bond.

Brazil paper company Klabin began calls with investors on Monday as it looks to become the second Brazilian company to sell a sustainability-linked bond. The size of the potential coupon step-up differs depending on which of three sustainability performance indicators Klabin might fail to meet.

Despite funding stresses in certain Latin American countries, bond markets will continue to help the region with its financing needs. For now, this eases the pressure for reform and fiscal consolidation, but issuers must eventually face up to political and social turbulence. Oliver West reports.

With returns on developed market bonds being squeezed as never before, debt analysts are heralding emerging markets as the place for investors to be in 2021. Yet the faster the global economic recovery, the more vulnerable EM fixed income will be to what has often been its downfall: any signal of tighter global liquidity conditions, write Mariam Meskin and Oliver West.

Latin America primary enjoyed a rare bustling start to December this week with three deals catching the eye for different reasons, despite several market participants saying they were ready for a calmer end to the year.