| IFR

IFR Colombia Roundtable 2019

IFR held its first Colombia Capital Markets Roundtable on February 8 in Bogotá, bringing together high-profile issuers, borrowers and bankers to discuss the prospects for a country that looks set for renewed growth this year. Topics ranged from the difficulties of deepening the country’s local debt markets to infrastructure financing to whether the new government can successfully attend to fiscal imbalances. Investments had largely been on hold last year ahead of an uncertain election and amid concerns that Colombia, rated Baa2/BBB-/BBB,...Read more

To purchase printed copies or a PDF of this report, please email leonie.welss@lseg.com and shahid.hamid@lseg.com

IFR Colombia Roundtable 2019 participants

César Arias Colombia’s Ministry of Finance César Arias is director of public credit and national treasury at Colombia’s finance ministry, a position he has held since November 2018 following the election of President Iván Duque last year. Before that, Arias was director, emerging markets research at Deutsche Bank. He was also a director at Fitch Ratings Latin American Sovereign Ratings Group and worked in the research office at the International Monetary Fund’s capital markets department. Clemente del Valle Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional...

IFR Colombia Roundtable 2019: Part 1

IFR: Welcome everyone to IFR’s first Colombia Capital Markets Roundtable. Investors have grown more optimistic about the prospects for Colombia – at least in the short term. Right-wing candidate Iván Duque won the presidency last year, putting market fears of a leftist victory to bed, and economic growth looks set to resume this year. Even so, challenges remain. The passage of a watered-down tax bill has given the new government some breathing space, but it fell short of mending the longer-term fiscal picture in a country rated Baa2/BBB-/BBB by...

IFR Colombia Roundtable 2019: Part 2

IFR: The Colombian president has said that the influx of Venezuelan immigrants has cost the country 0.5% of GDP. What impact will a resolution to the Venezuelan crisis have on the budget and more broadly on the Colombian economy? César Arias, Colombia’s Ministry of Finance: We are happy to report that in 2018, which was the peak year of the problem, when we had a net influx of one million, and immigrants put a lot of pressure on fiscal accounts via housing, health, education; we were able to accommodate these needs within the fiscal rule. We...

IFR Colombia Roundtable 2019: Part 3

IFR: EPM has also been in the news for its Ituango dam, which has been delayed after the project’s structural integrity was called into question. What impact has this had on the company’s balance sheet? And what does this mean for the financing of the dam itself and your financing needs? Jorge Tabares, EPM: We were building a US$4bn project and almost US$3bn into the project, 85% complete, we had a major issue with a tunnel blockade and a premature rising of the reservoir. This week we reached a big milestone having regained control of the...