Confirming talk that Latin America is on the agenda, CDC IXIS Financial Guaranty (CIFG) managing director Jeremy Reifsnyder said the budding guarantor is looking at transactions in the region's future-flows sector, with a particular focus on diversified payment rights (DPRs). The moment is ripe, sources said.
XL Capital Assurance and Ambac have yet to lift a moratorium on deals from Brazil - host to most DPR deals - and MBIA has insured US$850 million in structured deals out of the Latin giant this year alone.
Even if MBIA were open to more Brazil business, it might not come to a head-to-head match against CIFG. "Our size appetite will be smaller than the MBIAs of the world," said Reifsnyder, formerly a senior member of MBIA's structured finance team.
That jibes with speculation that CIFG may be going for a transaction that Merrill Lynch is rumored to be structuring for Banco Itau at US$100 million. Banco do Brasil is also expected to return to the market soon, following a US$125 DPR transaction closed in late March via ML. Reifsnyder declined to comment on the specifics of the firm's potential Latin business.
While he projected future flows business next year on the cross-border front, domestic markets in Latin America are off the radar. That means CIFG will not be joining its European brethren in Mexico. Dutch Development bank FMO and Dexia Credit are among the guarantors who have taken to the burgeoning peso market.
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