AMX Debuts Bond Format to Strong Bid

America Movil has raised MXP15bn ($1.15bn) in 2022 bonds, adding to its list of capital markets firsts by using a new structure allowing simultaneous participation from domestic and foreign investors. Demand for the securities, known as Titulos de Credito Extranjeros, topped MXP50bn, with 80% coming from foreign investors and 20% from LatAm – allocated mostly to Mexico accounts with participation from Peru, Chile and Brazil. “Below Mbonos+100bp is tight, but the format is new and attractive and there is huge international investor appetite, as seen through foreign inflows into Mexico and demand for this new deal,” says a Mexico City-based investor. The Mexican telecom priced at 99.989 with a 6.45% coupon to yield 6.45%, or Mbonos+93bp, the tight end of 95bp-area guidance that followed low 100bp-area initial price thoughts. “We like it. This is one of the first global registered securities of its kind. Although we wanted 100bp over the Mbono, we still got a decent pickup and hopefully it will have better liquidity,” adds a US-based investor referring to Europeso bonds that have been issued in the past. Indeed, avoiding the liquidity concerns that can keep investors away from global-local currency sales was the issuer’s main objective. The format also avoids the additional certificates necessary for global depository notes (GDNs). Some looked at Pemex’s 2021 bonds reopened Monday at Mbonos+110bp, and last trading around Mbonos+90bp, as a reference point. However, others following the trade argued that, given the new asset class and differences to Pemex’s GDN’s, the UMS was a more appropriate starting point. Orders coming from 122 accounts made up the largest local currency order book in Mexican history, according to sources familiar with the deal. It is also likely the largest-ever fixed-rate issuance in Mexico’s domestic market, they add. “That is the issuer that can open this market,” says a DCM banker away from the deal, noting Pemex is the only other name able to