CSN joins LatAm calendar; CPI Group holds investor call; Egypt mixed

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, April 8 – With the addition of Companhia Siderurgigca Nacional’s (CSN) planned seven-year notes to the calendar, Latin America’s primary market looks fuller than it’s been for a while, but the deal count isn’t signaling a shift toward more robust issuance going forward, a New York-based market source said.

The Brazilian steelmaker is planning to price the new notes in tandem with cash tender offers for up to $750 million of two existing bonds.

“It’s a mixed bag,” the source said of the LatAm deal tally.

Of the four remaining deals, Alicorp SAA is a nuevo sol denominated deal, which points to the trend of more local market deals, the source said, referring to debt financing in local-currencies. And Panama’s proposed benchmark of notes isn’t one that will turn heads.

That leaves just two other deals, Consorcio Tranmantaro SA’s proposed dollar, 15-year notes, and the proposed medium-term notes of Panama’s Global Bank Corp.

LatAm issuance has picked up some since the beginning of the year, but it’s still well below last year, and it doesn’t feel like that is going to change any time soon, the source said. “I think we will see more local market deals.”

With local interest rates coming down, demand for yield is driving the diversification toward the local market, where the economies are doing better and there is better saving, the source said.

Meanwhile, the upcoming Easter holiday on April 21 will start to quiet Latin America markets by the end of this week and the second quarter overall is expected to be relatively quiet.

In other news, the Central & Emerging Europe region saw two deals announced. CPI Property Group is offering a euro-denominated note for which a fixed income investor call was held on Monday, and Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus selected banks and scheduled fixed-income investor meetings regarding a debut offering of dollar-denominated five-year notes and possibly a tranche of three-year notes.

The deal for property investment company CPI is being priced by bookrunners Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Nomura.

And Citigroup and Raiffeisen Bank are arranging the meetings in Europe and the United States for the Rule 144A and Regulation S notes for Belarus’ development bank.

In secondary action, Egypt’s newly priced 4¾%, six-year notes were seen at 98.8 bid, 99.8 offered. Those notes priced at par late last week along with a second tranche of 6 3/8%, 12-year notes. The second tranche was not heard in trade. Egypt’s sovereign spread was mixed with its near dated paper wider but the most of the curve narrowly nixed.

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