March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Banco Bradesco SA, Brazil’s second- largest lender by market value, plans to sell benchmark dollar bonds in its second overseas debt issue since September, said a person familiar with the transaction.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Banco Bradesco and Banco Votorantim will arrange the five-year bond offering, said the person, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t set. A benchmark sale typically means at least $500 million in size. The Osasco, Brazil-based bank sold $750 million of 10-year notes in September.
Banco Bradesco is returning to international bond markets after the company’s borrowing costs tumbled. The yield on Bradesco’s 6.75 percent bonds due in 2019 sank 44 basis points since September to 5.94 percent, the lowest since the securities were issued, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“It’s a really strong bank with a following both in Brazil and abroad,” said Bevan Rosenbloom, an emerging-market debt strategist with RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut. “The macro situation is very strong in Brazil. Consumption is increasing, credit is increasing, unemployment is down.”
Brazilian banks including Banco Daycoval SA, Banco do Brasil SA, Banco Pine SA and Banco Cruzeiro do Sul SA have also sold dollar bonds overseas this year as the economic recovery in Latin America’s biggest economy fuels demand for the securities. Brazilian borrowers topped dollar bond sales in Latin America last year, issuing $25 billion overseas, as the economy was among the first to emerge from the recession.
A Banco Bradesco spokeswoman declined to comment.
--Editor: Lester PimentelTo contact the reporter on this story: Gabrielle Coppola in New York at gcoppola@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net.net
March 15, 2010, 4:55 PM EDT
