Latin America is increasing its relative strength in the emerging markets asset class, according to Euromoney’s best borrowers survey. In 2012, four of the top five corporates are Latin American: Petrobras, Vale, Odebrecht and Cemex are rated first, second, fourth and fifth, respectively, with only Russia’s Gazprom at third preventing a Latin clean sweep.
In the sovereign rankings, Poland’s strong credit story pips another’s robust improvement: Mexico jumps three places to second this year behind Poland, which also climbs three places to take the 2012 top-ranked EM sovereign. Rounding out the top three is Brazil, last year’s best-ranked EM sovereign.
Mexico’s story shows the importance and value of marketing to new groups of investors. After the crisis in 2008, the external financing of the United Mexican States (UMS) dropped sharply and the sovereign substituted a lot of external debt for internal debt.
