Panama says bond plans amount to $1.25 billion

Panama aims to raise $1.25 billion in the cross-border bond market this year and is also in talks for a hybrid transaction to finance the construction of the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal, the country’s finance minister told LatinFinance.

The Central American sovereign issuer has approximately $2.7 billion in funding needs for 2017, including $800 milliom to refinance maturing debt, Dulcidio De La Guardia said at the IDB-IIC Annual Meeting in Asuncion, Paraguay. Panama also plans to print $700m in the local capital markets, he said.

Some Central American countries took advantage of market conditions in Q1 to kick off their fundraising plans for 2017, but Panama was absent from the cross-border market. With plenty of cash on hand, the country preferred to focus on consolidating its cash balances into a single treasury account, rather than raise more debt, De La Guardia said.

Source: Latin Finance