Brazil

Brazilian oil and gas producer Petrobras will continue to tidy up its debt profile with the buy-back of two bonds due in 2020, it said on Wednesday.

Engineering and construction company Andrade Gutierrez Engenharia, one of the largest contractors in Latin America, failed to repay a senior unsecured bond that matured on April 30.

Light, the Rio de Janeiro electricity company, will begin investor meetings on Wednesday ahead of a potential debut international bond sale.

A more volatile day in markets on Friday didn’t stop Brazilian pension fund RioPrevidencia’s deal trading well on the break as syndicate bankers covering Latin America remain positive on the primary market’s near-term prospects.

Two high profile Latin American issuers brought the region’s corporate sector back into play on Thursday. Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo and Brazilian lender Banco do Brasil both managed hefty spread tightening after offering conservative price talk, much like the EM sovereigns that dominated primary markets.

Moody’s said that it believed fiscal reforms in Brazil were inevitable no matter who wins October’s election, removing the country’s negative outlook just weeks after the rating agency’s peers downgraded the sovereign.

Three of Brazil’s most important issuers received overwhelming responses to tender offers in the last week, as the country’s corporates focus on liability management.

Rio Oil Finance Trust, the SPV through which Rio de Janeiro’s state pension fund RioPrevidencia issues bonds backed by royalties from state oil giant Petrobras, has a knack for timing.

Brazilian bonds rallied on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled that former president Lula Inácio da Silva must go to jail before exhausting his last appeal against a corruption conviction — effectively ruling him out of October’s presidential election.

Brazilian mining giant Vale has completed the buy-back of $1.75bn in dollar bonds after more than half of the owners of its 4.375% 2022s agreed to sell their notes.

Brazilian state oil giant Petrobras will buy back $4bn of bonds as part of a tender offer after nearly twice as many bondholders offered to sell their notes.

Latin American bond bankers are presenting unusual structures to potential buyers, even as markets remain weak and more straightforward, well-known credits are managing only modestly successful deal execution.