A few financiers have commented to GTR that commercial banks seem to be missing the boat in <

  • xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Argentina. At the end of last year few could get credit approvals and the country continued to bathe in its own toxic waste. However, the short cycle of the Latin American  market sucked bankers back pretty early in 2003 at which stage the best looking Argentines were talking about full metal jacket structures for six months at 10% pa all in, which is historically high. Despite the odd notable success in the commercial bank market (such as the recent Nidera deal, at a rather longer tenor) nevertheless not much came to market and banks making pitches at these levels in the second quarter soon found that a whole raft of bodies and institutions had lined up to blow this fledgling STF opportunity out of the water. The investment bankers already seem to be back offering lightly structured deals aimed at the US high yield investor (everything being relative). Buoyed by recent success seen with long-term financings for top names in Brazil, the Argentines are now holding out for three-to-five-year deals at prices much closer to the long-term average.