Many thought Brazilian pulp and paper producer Suzano would kick-start new bond issuance activity across the region this week, but on Thursday the company opted to sit tight amid choppy conditions. Suzano is understood to want a tighter price than what the market is seemingly willing to pay, but the exporter will try again next week.
Elsewhere in Brazil, Pirapora has tapped Itau BBA and BTG Pactual to conduct investor meetings with local bond buyers for a potential real-denominated note to help its solar power investments. The IDB and its private sector funding arm IDB Invest will guarantee a portion of the issuance.
Caribbean telecom Digicel saw its bonds drop this week after it announced a two-part debt exchange to extend the maturity on some bonds to 2022 and 2024. The company mandated Citi to coordinate the exercise and the US bank has left the window open until later this month for investors to agree terms.
Ecuador relieved some of its funding requirements for this year, agreeing to a $500m repurchasing agreement with US investment bank Goldman Sachs. The sovereign issuer shaved about 30% of its funding costs but had to offer more than $1bn in bonds as collateral on the repo.
On the people front, Bradesco snagged a couple of former Standard Chartered bankers to boost its DCM offering in New York while its own Gustavo Miwa has moved to Brazil to manage the bank’s local DCM unit. Goldman bolstered its ECM team with a former Barclays banker and Jonatan Plavnick left BNP Paribas for asset manager Oaktree Capital.
Finally in Chile, Santander’s local subsidiary sold some Swissies and Agrosuper has set sights on the domestic securities market to help fund its recent purchase of Salmones Friosur.