Several large loans moved forward in July and August, although the pipeline for new transactions thinned.

Among the new projects was a $1.5 billion loan to Odebrecht Oil and Gas. The borrower was understood to be in discussions with a small group of lenders in mid-August for a $1.5 billion loan to finance floating production, storage and offloading units (FPSOs).

Financing for Gasoducto Sur Peruano, a recently awarded gas pipeline concession, is also in the planning stages. Banks are heard to be in talks with sponsors Odebrecht and Enagas to find a suitable structure for around $3.8 billion in financing to build and operate the pipeline.

Also in the oil and gas sector, Pemex is heard to be working with a small group of banks for a local currency loan. The 10-year amortizing loan deal is heard to be 30 billion pesos ($2.28 billion).

The loan was launched with a bank meeting in Mexico at the end of July, with commitments due in August. Treasurer Rodolfo Campos told LatinFinance the deal is the country’s first peso-denominated syndicated loan arranged by and syndicated to local banks.

The local syndicated loan market offered “decent conditions”, he said: “There is also a challenge we face every time we think about our financing strategy, which is that we share the external debt ceiling with the public sector. That forces us to allocate an important part of our financing in the local market.”

Also in Mexico, América Móvil allocated a $2.5 billion, five-year revolving credit facility. Some 21 banks were heard to take part, despite the loan paying a skinny 45 basis points over Libor.

BBVA, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citi, Intesa Sanpaolo and Santander were bookrunners on the deal.

Techgen came to the market in July with its eye on an $800 million five-year loan, while Empresa de Energia de Bogotá (EEB) was out with a $645 million transaction with the same tenor.

Arbeleche resigns

Uruguay’s director of debt management, Azucena Arbeleche, resigned in late July for personal reasons. She had overseen a series of large-scale liability management offers by the sovereign in recent years, bringing down the borrower’s cost of financing. Michael Borchardt, who runs the finance ministry’s budget unit, was tapped to take over on an interim basis.

In Chile, state-run copper miner Codelco named Nelson Pizarro as chief executive. He took over from Octavio Araneda Oses, who stepped in on an interim basis in June after the board called for Thomas Keller to resign. Pizarro had been chief executive of Lumina Copper Chile, a subsidiary of Japanese company Pan Pacific Copper, since 2006.

Also in Chile, copper cable producer Invexans named Martín Rodríguez Guiraldes as chief executive in August, following the resignation of Cristián Montes Lahaye.

In Mexico, real estate trust Fibra Uno hired Gerardo Vargas as vice president of finance. The firm’s chief financial officer, Javier Elizalde, was appointed vice president of treasury. Both report to chief executive André El Mann.

In investment banking, three former Fitch analysts launched an advisory firm to guide Argentine companies through raising capital in the country. Quo Advisors is targeting small and medium-sized Argentine companies looking to raise funds amid a period of spiraling inflation. Ana Ares, Lorna Martin and Dolores Terán, are founding partners.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch hired Marcus Silberman from Credit Suisse as co-head of Latin America M&A. Manuel Irarrazaval also joined BofA-Merrill, to cover the Southern Cone countries.

Irarrazaval’s former position as chief country officer for Chile at Deutsche Bank was filled by Andrés de Goyeneche, who remains chief executive and head of capital markets and treasury solutions (CMTS) for Chile.

UBS hired Marcos Grodetzky as senior advisor to its corporate client solutions business in Brazil. Grodetzky was most recently chief executive at DGB, a logistics and distribution company.

Sumitomo Mitsui added to its loan syndications team with the hire of Kristie Pellecchia, who joined the New York office in August as a director, with a focus on Latin America. Pellecchia was a Latin America loan syndicator at BNP Paribas until mid-2013, when she moved to the French bank’s consumer products team covering North American clients.

Itaú, meanwhile, hired Diego Vogelbaum from JPMorgan in July to run loan syndication and distribution for the bank’s businesses outside Brazil. LF