Brazil

Hypermarcas, the Brazilian pharmaceutical company, will not extend the early bird deadline on the tender offer for its 6.5% senior notes due 2021 after bondholders responded positively to the buy-back offer.

Brazilian bonds rallied on Wednesday afternoon after the country's treasury secretary told local press that the sovereign was considering buying back foreign bonds in what DCM bankers said was likely to have been a deliberate response to a ratings cut from Moody’s in the morning.

A strong performance in Brazil’s bond curve on Wednesday underlined how unsurprised bond investors were to see Latin America’s largest sovereign receive yet another rating downgrade.

Dollar bonds from Latin America remained elusive this week as global market turmoil kept borrowers on the sidelines.

Markit is preparing to launch what it said will be the first tradable emerging markets interest rate swap index.

The pain continued for the Brazilian steel sector on Friday as leading producer Gerdau suffered the loss of its first investment grade rating.

Steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) could be the next major Brazilian corporate to be forced into a debt restructuring, Fitch Ratings has warned.

Fitch downgraded Odebrecht Offshore Drilling Finance (OODF) from B- to CCC on Monday, highlighting its concerns that the Brazilian issuer’s discussions with bondholders could lead to a restructuring of its bonds.

After three consecutive years of record volumes, in 2015 Latin American bond market momentum was halted by crises in Brazil and plunging commodity prices. Though volatility will continue and issuers and investors often struggle to meet on price, the market looks mature enough for a modest recovery in 2016. Oliver West reports.

Despite the currency tanking against the dollar in 2015, investment in Brazilian real denominated medium term notes is at a healthy level.

Bad news seems determined to afflict Brazil until the very end of the year as Joaquim Levy’s resignation on Friday sent bonds to new lows with much of the market in holiday mode.

For most observes it had already become a matter of time. Standard & Poor’s had already made Brazil a sub-investment grade borrower and both Fitch and Moody’s had Latin America’s largest sovereign on review for downgrade.