Oil company YPF will tap international investors for another Argentine peso-denominated benchmark-sized bond, continuing a trend being shown by several Argentine issuers. This time, however, the state-owned name will look for fixed-rate debt over a floating trade.
HSBC and Santander held meetings in Boston on Tuesday and plan to reach out to bond buyers in New York on Wednesday, debt capital markets sources said. Leads are expected to launch the transaction later this week, the sources said.
In June, the state-owned company sold the equivalent of $750m in local bonds to international investors. BBVA Frances and Santander Rio priced the floating-rate paper at 4% over the Badlar rate.
YPF’s ‘global-local’ peso floater last year came to market with a generous coupon floor, in a bid to warm investors who were wary of Argentina’s high Badlar rate.
A number of names – Tarjeta Naranja, Supervielle and Banco Hipotecario – have since followed suit with floating-rate local currency trades of their own.
Banco Macro is also testing investor appetite for a similar fixed-rate peso-denominated trade, with talk the Argentine lender could raise the equivalent of $300m this week and in turn, provide YPF with the necessary comparable for its later bond.
Last December, YPF’s board approved up to $1bn in new bond sales. In November the company’s CFO Daniel Gonzalez said the company planned to prioritize refinancing its existing debt and lowering interest payments in 2017, after selling pesos, dollars and Swiss franc-denominated bonds last year.