Brazil: Tender offer failure equals good news

Investors might be keen to get out of Latin American assets right now, but that doesn’t mean they’ve fallen completely out of love with Brazilian debt. The Brazilian government tried to take advantage of the turbulent markets by announcing a $4 billion tender offer in June; the offer was a spectacular failure, attracting just $1.2 billion in bids.

“The overwhelming message we got was that we like Brazilian debt very much, and we’re not willing to part with it for cash,” says co-lead manager Credit Suisse’s Brazil head José Olympio. “Although the government would have liked to buy more debt, it was a pleasing message.”

Carlos Kawall, Brazil’s treasury secretary, told journalists: “We’ve identified that demand was less than expected. The fact that demand was weak, especially in shorter papers, indicates that investors are happy to keep our paper even at a time of greater volatility.

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