Uruguay

Uruguay began investor calls on Monday ahead of a proposed dollar and global local currency bond issue. The marketing effort came as the government continues to take steps towards issuing what would be the first sustainability-linked bond from any sovereign — though this week’s expected deal will not have ESG characteristics.

As Uruguay looks to follow a recent surge of sustainability-themed bond issuance from Latin American borrowers with an ESG bond of its own, one of the options it is weighing up is a sustainability-linked bond — a format that has so far only been used by corporate borrowers.

Uruguay’s dollar bonds are hot property, but the sovereign is planning to focus its international bond issuance efforts on its domestic currency in 2021 as it looks to develop the peso market and increase the share of its debt burden in the currency.

The world’s largest independent McDonald’s franchisee, Arcos Dorados, is planning to tap its senior unsecured bonds due 2027 as it looks to refinance debt raised to tackle the Covid-19 crisis.

After a rush of dollar issuance from Latin American sovereigns, Uruguay — the last of the region’s investment grade countries to turn to bond markets during the coronavirus pandemic — spotted the chance in late June to become the first EM sovereign to issue abroad in its own currency this year. Herman Kamil, director of the country's debt management office (DMO), tells GlobalCapital how the sovereign bucked the trend.

Uruguay’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic — so far, superior to the majority of crisis-hit Latin America — helped it issue $2bn-equivalent of bonds on Wednesday with a very slim new issue premium on its inflation-linked peso notes and a negative concession on a dollar tap.

Uruguay raised $2bn-equivalent of debt on Wednesday — the bulk of which came from a rare inflation-linked local currency issue — to become the final investment grade Latin American sovereign to tap international bond markets in the coronavirus era.

Uruguay-headquartered Navios South American Logistics on Tuesday notched a $500m 10-year bond that left the company with a far more comfortable debt maturity profile. But Navios had to improve terms for investors — and wait a week after it first announced the issue — to get the refinancing done.

Bankers said that Uruguay could provide a stern test of risk appetite if it decides to announce a new bond issue in local currency, after the sovereign began investor calls saying it could issue in dollars and/or Uruguayan pesos.

ACI Airport Sudamérica, the operator of Uruguay’s largest airport, has received consent from its bondholders to delay a year of debt payments to help it through the Covid-19 pandemic — just weeks after creditors of its Argentine sister company achieved the same.

Market participants expect Uruguay’s new centre-right government to tighten fiscal policy, but rating agencies believe doing so will prove a difficult balancing act.

Uruguay made the most of the low rate environment on Thursday to tap two bonds for a total of $1.055bn. It was part of a liability management exercise that the finance ministry said produced a nominal financial benefit of $87m.