North America

Mexico’s finance ministry is preparing to enlist a consortium of banks to provide financing that Petroleos Mexicanos would use to pay off debt with service providers, according to a recording of remarks made by its CEO, Bloomberg News reported. The state-owned oil company is coordinating with the finance ministry, which would potentially take on debt on its behalf to pay the service contractors, Chief Executive Officer Victor Rodriguez said at a private event on Friday hosted by Mexico’s College of Petroleum Engineers.
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Panama’s credit score was cut by S&P Global Ratings, putting the Central American nation a step closer to losing its investment-grade status, Bloomberg News reported. S&P lowered Panama by a notch to BBB-, on par with Mexico and Romania, citing rising government debt levels made worst by sluggish revenue. The outlook is stable. “The downgrade reflects the sovereign’s weaker flexibility that increases the vulnerability to economic and fiscal challenges ahead,” analysts including Karla Gonzalez and Manuel Orozco wrote in a Tuesday statement.
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Donald Trump’s new tariff pledges send a clear signal that he wants to rewrite the terms of North America’s free-trade pact and follow through with plans to hit China with tariffs, demonstrating to allies and adversaries alike that he is serious about renewing confrontation over a global trading system that he believes costs the U.S. dearly, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Anglo American Plc agreed to sell its steelmaking coal business to Peabody Energy Corp. for a fee that could rise to as much as $3.78 billion, as the miner’s restructuring gathers pace, Bloomberg News reported. Anglo is looking to dramatically simplify — and shrink — its business in a move that was announced during a successful rebuttal of a $49 billion approach from BHP Group earlier this year. For Peabody, the deal will significantly shift its product mix as the U.S. miner seeks to focus on metallurgical coal.
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A group of investors led by Elliott Investment Management faces new obstacles to taking control of Venezuela’s oil refiner Citgo Petroleum in a court-ordered auction while seeking to shield themselves from legal claims against the cash-strapped country, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Leonard P. Stark of the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., said in an order on Wednesday he isn’t inclined to let the sale proceed without preserving the legal liabilities.
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The Bahamas announced Friday that it will refinance $300 million of its external debt to free up more than $120 million for marine conservation projects and climate change mitigation, the Associated Press reported. It is the fifth such debt-for-nature swap in the world, with the Bahamian government signing the deal with The Nature Conservancy, the Inter-American Development Bank and other financial partners.
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El Salvador has a high chance of striking a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund next month for about $1.4 billion, Bloomberg News reported. President Nayib Bukele is seeking to finalize terms for the three-year program after staff from the Washington-based lender visits the country in December. The nation’s dollar bonds edged higher on the news, with notes due in 2041 rising 0.2 cents to 89.8 cents on the dollar, the highest since 2021, according to indicative pricing compiled by Bloomberg.
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