Advent of the non-deal roadshow

Back in the euphoric days of Latin American issuance the roadshow was a seminal event, taking credits across the world to meet investors who had never dreamt of owning Argentine or Brazilian paper, let alone that of Ecuador or Venezuela. Cross-over investors were being wined and dined and given serious economic data on countries they had never visited and only knew about in cliché terms. Such was the search for yield that the strength of an issuer's story was sometimes less important than an investor's belief that he was not acting alone and would not look stupid in a crisis.

But then the crises came - first in October 1997 following the Asian downturn and again in August as Russia collapsed - and Latin America's new investors turned out to be fair-weather friends. The cross-over investors deserted in droves, as did the hedge funds, apart from those with short...