EM still active as big issuance week ends; LatAm deals price; Vedanta prices $1 billion

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, April 12 – Emerging markets debt finished out a very active week of primary issuance on Friday with pricing emerging on two deals for Latin America including Peru’s Consorcio Transmantaro SA and Panama’s Global Bank Corp.

Consorcio priced $400 million of 15-year green bonds (rating: Baa3) at par to yield 4.7%, and Global Bank priced $300 million 10-year notes (rating: /BBB-/BBB-) at par to yield 5¼%.

Consorcio priced tight to initial talk for yield in the area of 5%.

BofA Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan were joint bookrunners of the Rule 144A and Regulation S notes.

The proceeds are expected to be used to fund the early redemption of outstanding bank loans and for capital expenditures.

The power transmission company is based in Lima, Peru.

Citigroup and JPMorgan were joint bookrunners of the Global Bank notes with Bladex acting as co-manager of the Rule 144A and Regulation S offering.

The issue for the Panama City-based lender was priced in conjunction with a tender offer for the company’s $550 million of 5 1/8% notes due 2019.

Meanwhile, Vedanta Resources Ltd. priced $1 billion of bonds in dual tranches due in 2023 and 2026 (ratings: B2/B+/), according to a company announcement on Friday.

The notes were issued by Vedanta subsidiary Vedanta resources Finance II plc.

The $400 million 2023 notes priced at par to yield 8%.

And the $600 million tranche of 2026 notes priced at par to yield 9¼%.

The blended average cost is 8¾%, and the average maturity is 5.8 years, the company said.

The Rule 144A and Regulation S notes were sold via Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Ltd., J.P. Morgan Securities plc and Standard Chartered Bank as joint global coordinators, joint lead managers and joint bookrunners.

Proceeds will be used primarily to repay existing debt. Upon completion of the liability management transactions of which this is a part, Vedanta will extend its average debt maturity to about 4.0 years from 3.2 years.

Vedanta intends to list the bonds on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd.

London-listed Vedanta is a metals and energy company with operations in Asia and Africa.

The week saw a myriad of deals from all regions this past week, which included Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s (Aramco) long awaited blockbuster of notes for $12 billion in five tranches (A1//A+). Pricing of those notes went well, but the paper was weaker in after-market trading.

Also in a blockbuster of tranches was Bank of China Ltd.’s planned six tranches in five currencies. Pricing had not emerged for all of the tranches. But Bank of China’s Zweigniederlassung Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt Branch priced €500 million ½% notes due 2022 (A1/A/A) at 99.803 to yield 0.316%, or mid-swaps plus 48 basis points on Wednesday.

The Frankfurt Branch notes were to be joined by tranches denominated in U.S. dollars, Hong Kong dollars, Australian dollars and Chinese yuan. The deals are pricing under the bank’s $40 billion medium-term note program.

The Regulation S notes were sold Wednesday by joint lead managers and joint lead bookrunners Bank of China, Citigroup, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, LBBW and UniCredit.

Proceeds are earmarked for general corporate purposes.

The Beijing-based bank launched the $40 billion MTN program on April 9.

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