Brazil

Brazilian bank BTG Pactual is asking holders of its perpetual bonds issued in 2014 to agree to a new indenture that allows the lender to change the issuing branch of the notes.

Brazilian state oil giant Petrobras began the year finalising yet another buy-back of existing bonds, though the response from bondholders fell below the $1.5bn maximum repurchase amount set by the borrower.

Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes is set to continue its deleveraging process as it looks to repurchase the remainder of its bonds due in 2022.

No Latin American borrowers dared to announce bond plans in the short first working week of 2019, but a flurry of pre-Christmas requests for proposals and the prospect of habitual January issuers tapping was enough to make syndicate bankers chirpier.

Latin American bond markets had a predictably quiet start to 2019 as DCM bankers are focussing firmly on next week for any new supply, but early signs suggested that Brazil would continue to be the outperformer.

An appetite for risk is returning to Latin America's equity markets heading into 2019 as worries over the China-US trade war and rates hikes in the latter country ease, according to a Lat Am fund manager survey from Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research.

Battling a host of problems — local and global — Latin American bond markets suffered a torrid 2018. Many issuers stayed away, high yielders struggled to find financing and investors booked losses. With more volatility expected, political developments in LatAm’s three largest economies could make or break the region’s bond markets in 2019. Oliver West reports.

NiQuan Energy Trinidad Ltd, the owner of a gas-to-liquids plant in Trinidad and Tobago, held its final conference calls on Thursday and appears to represent the Lat Am DCM market’s last hope of primary activity in 2018, with most bankers now looking towards January.

Brazilian government-owned oil company Petrobras has said it is looking to deleverage as part of its new five year business plan. But it will still be a regular borrower in capital markets. Furthermore, though some Latin American debt capital markets bankers say their January pipeline is looking bearer than it usually does at this stage of the year, Brazilian public sector issuers could be the one active area of the market.

Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau will buy back $1bn of existing dollar bonds after receiving over $1.345bn of offers from bondholders to participate in a tender offer during the early-bird period, taking advantage of a strong cash position after asset sales and a recent local bond issue.

Santander Brasil has tested the country’s Letra Imobiliária Garantida (LIGs) covered bond regime with two privately placed deals.

Odebrecht Engenharia & Construçäo finally admitted defeat in its attempt to avoid default on Monday, as it acknowledged that it would not be making a $11.5m coupon payment due on its $519m of 4.375% 2025 bonds, paving the way for a restructuring.