The Brazilian onslaught is over. While the country will no doubt produce more cross-border transactions this year, no one expects a repeat of the scale and frequency experienced over the last two months. "There's room to do more, but I don't expect a lot happening in what's left of the year," said a Sao Paulo-based banker.
Banco Bradesco and steel producer CSN provided the encore for the massive showing. In all, issuers have tapped the market for roughly US$2.1 billion since July 1. Last week, Bradesco priced a US$400 million, two-tranche bond backed by diversified payment rights via ABN Amro (see ASR 8/4, p. 20). The unwrapped slice of the deal was upsized to US$200 million from US$100 million to accommodate additional orders, according to a source on the deal. "Some investors that initially wanted the wrapped tranche went for the other one," the source said. Rated BBB' and Baa1' by Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service, the unwrapped portion priced at 6.905%, translating into a spread of 365 basis points over five-year treasuries. The deal had a legal final maturity of seven years and an average life of 4.76 years. The other tranche, also for US$200 million, priced at 68 basis points over 3-month Libor thanks to a wrap from MBIA. The average life was slightly longer than the other tranche. For Bradesco, cross-border legal counsel was Dewey Ballantine and domestic counsel was Pinheiro Neto. ABN retained Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw as counsel for the foreign portion and used Souza, Cescon Avedissian, Barrieu e Flesch on the domestic front.
Meanwhile, steel producer CSN closed a US$267 million securitization program last week with a US$125 million, three-year floating rate bond via BNP Paribas. Rated BBB-', the floater priced at 275 basis points over Libor, according to the company. Collateral is comprised of export receivables. The deal was heard to have gone to the banking market. Earlier in July, the company priced a US$142 million, seven-year transaction at 485 basis points over Treasurys (see ASR 8/4, p. 20).
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