"You [always] lose sleep over deals at one stage or other of the process," says Paul Tregidgo, head of the Latin American debt capital markets group for CSFB, who believes that intuition and conviction are as important as technical factors in putting together ground-breaking deals. In the 10 years Tregidgo has worked on Latin America, there have been inspiring moments, such as the seven-year Dm500 million for Argentina issued in October 1995 (and increased twice by Dm250 million in the following months) which paved the way for the Deutschmark to become a major currency market for Latin issuers across the maturity spectrum. Or the 10-year yankee for YPF, the Argentine oil company, brought in February 1994 at eight basis points inside the sovereign which prompted a general review of the relative value of investment-grade credits with non-investment-grade addresses.
"The market looks back and says [the YPF deal] was obvious but at the time it was definitely dramatic," says Tregidgo. "Few thought it could be done and then, after it was, people thought it was a one-hit wonder."
Since the YPF deal, several other private credits have come inside the sovereign and the ratings agency Standard & Poor's has given ratings higher than the sovereign in dollarized or dollar-linked economies such as Argentina.