Bloomberg Línea — Argentine fintech Ualá plans to launch in Colombia as part of its regional expansion, and which will be its third market after Argentina and Mexico. The company currently has a valuation of $2.5 billion following its most recent financing round.
The U.S. economic recovery has boosted Mexico’s exports, which increased by 19% year-on-year in 2021, totaling $494 billion. However, the country has seen investment slump, with figures for January 15% below the amount recorded in the same month in 2019.
Following is a roundup of Thursday’s news from Bloomberg Línea and Bloomberg reporters across Latin America.
Argentina
- Argentine fintech Ualá plans to touch down in Colombia as part of its regional expansion, and which would be its third market after Argentina and Mexico.
- With its reserves at critical levels, Argentina faces two payment obligations to the IMF and will have to pay more than $1 billion in five days. The first transfer is due this Friday, January 28.
Brazil
- The controlling shareholders of Braskem (BRKM5) have decided to postpone a billion-dollar stock offering of the petrochemical company that was planned for Thursday. Petrobras (PETR4) and Novonor planned to sell shares in Braskem in a 7.4-billion-real ($1.36 billion) offering after the companies opted for a coordinated public sale of shares. However, with market conditions worsening, investors were unwilling to pay the minimum price expected by Petrobras and Novonor, the conglomerate formerly known as Odebrecht.
Chile
- Chile wants to take advantage of investors’ increased appetite for local assets to issue dollar-denominated bonds. The country will offer dollar-denominated notes with maturities of 5, 12 and 30 years.
Colombia
- The Colombian government has adopted new measures for travelers arriving on cruise ships, who will now be required to present a full vaccination card, as well as a PCR or antigen test.
- President Duque said that central banks should be careful with rate hikes, and that he expects greater access to IMF Special Drawing Rights resources.
Ecuador
- Ecuador’s government announced that it will vaccinate children aged 3 and 4 years old against Covid-19, starting February 15, as it has seen an increase in the number of infections in infants in the last few weeks. It is also considering vaccinating younger children.
- President Guillermo Lasso will visit China next week with a view to improving the conditions of the debt with the Asian country, and which amounts to $5.11 billion, and to separate the debt from oil. China is the creditor of 11% of Ecuador’s foreign debt, and of the total amount owed to Beijing, around $2 billion is commercial debt linked to oil sales.
Mexico
- The United States’ economic recovery has boosted Mexican exports to record levels, with Mexico’s total exports up 19% year-on-year in 2021, reaching $494 billion, according to figures released Thursday by statistics agency INEGI.
- State-owned oil company Pemex reached its production goal in 2021, although the target was cut three times during the year. The difference between the company’s first oil output goal for the year and the most recent was 188,000 barrels per day.
- Investment in Mexico for this month was 15% below its January 2019 level, according to BBVA, and which the bank says will affect the country’s economic recovery.
Peru
- Peru aims for state-owned PetroPerú to lead the distribution of hydrocarbons in the country. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Eduardo González, announced that the government will meet with Russian investors interested in entering the Peruvian jungle to explore oil wells.
- The Latin American Development Bank (CAF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will donate $450,000 to Peru to attend to the oil spills the country suffered earlier this month after an underwater volcano off the Pacific island nation of Tonga caused a tsunami.
