Americas
Ecuador: Past Borrowing Limits Future Financing Options
Following its bold return to the debt markets in 2014, Ecuador has leaned heavily on external credit to meet its monetary and financing needs. Yet its options appear to be increasingly limited, with the prospect of a more aggressive deficit reduction programme or an IMF bailout becoming more likely by the day.
18 Dec 2018
Top Dealmaker: Natixis’ Helena Radzyminski on Latin America’s Loan Markets
With a slowdown in the bond markets following a jittery 1H2018 for EM and Latin America in particular, loans – especially in local currencies – are coming back into fashion. We speak to Helena Radzyminski, Managing Director, Loan Syndications at Natixis about the bank’s biggest deals over the past year, and strategic initiatives in the region planned for the coming year.
17 Dec 2018
Suzano CFO on ESG: “This trend will not be reversed, and we see Brazil becoming a key part of it”
Leading Brazilian pulp and paper producer Suzano Papel e Celulose helped pioneer the country’s green bond market with the first green agricultural receivables security, or CRA, and a number of transactions on the international capital markets. The company’s CFO, Marcelo Bacci, an ardent supporter of ESG-focused investing, talks to Bonds & Loans about why the company decided to engage the…
7 Dec 2018
Political Volatility Breaks Wave of M&As in Latin America
The first half of 2018 has seen a record-breaking volume of corporate consolidation across the globe, and Latin America has become a prominent setting for such activity. The latest slowdown in M&A activity is thought to be stemming from the peak of elections-related volatility, from Mexico to Brazil, and most expect business to continue as usual once the dust settles.
15 Nov 2018
Off the Record: Argentina Riding out the Storm
It has been a difficult year for Argentina. With inflation climbing above 40%, the ARS losing over half of its value against the US dollar, and lingering fears remaining following the Notebook scandal, investor confidence has been heavily dampened. But a reform-minded government, coupled with multilateral support, has created a sense that Argentina’s numerous structural deficiencies are beginning…
14 Nov 2018
Political Certainty, Sound Economics to Propel LatAm Infrastructure Opportunity Forward
As a region often faced with political and currency volatility – this year more than others in recent time, perhaps – Latin America has seen impressive growth in the volume and range of investment opportunities across the region’s infrastructure landscape.
9 Nov 2018
Winston & Strawn LLP Sees an Opening in Arbitration, Litigation Space across Latin America
As the Odebrecht ordeal and numerous other corruption scandals continued to devastate governments and ravage large corporates in the continent’s biggest economies, from Brazil to Argentina to Peru, international law firms have been seizing the opportunity to bring their litigation expertise and conflict-resolution know-how to the table. We speak to Julissa Reynoso, the former US Ambassador to…
31 Oct 2018
CASE STUDY: Unique USD175mn Bond/Loan Hybrid Draws US Long Money to Peru’s Cajamarca Project
With the aid of Natixis, which helped set up the innovative hybrid structure, the Peruvian transmission line project was able to attract long-money foreign investors, including major US pension funds.
24 Oct 2018
Rising Rates, Volatility Force Latin American Banks, Borrowers to Adapt to “New Normal”
Latin American economies are facing a range of complex challenges, both internal and external, as they power through the current election super-cycle – arguably the most significant in the region’s history. Bonds & Loans spoke to a number of Latin America-focussed debt capital markets bankers, rating agencies and law firms in the Americas to get a sense of the major themes and concerns that will…
22 Oct 2018
SWOT Analysis of Colombia’s Credit Markets
Bonds & Loans team spent some time on the ground in Colombia to meet with a broad range of local finance leaders in order to get a sense of the risks and opportunities on the horizon in the Andean country.
18 Oct 2018