Venezuela: bonds, indices, credit ratings

Issuance of Venezuelan global bonds reached USD 7.4bn in 2010. The government of Venezuela sold USD3.0bn worth of global bonds in international debt capital markets in 2010. PDVSA raised USD4.1bn in global bonds. During the first three quarters of 2011 flow of global bonds from Venezuela totaled USD10.35bn, including 4.2bn of Venezuelan sovereign bonds and USD6.15bn of Bonos PDVSA.
Venezuelan bond market is state-run. State companies, joint ventures, community councils and private companies must be authorized to sell debt. The public bond transaction system called SITME is used instead of Forex market.
“The bulk of the securities currently exchanged through the SITME system are dollar denominated bonds issued by Venezuela's oil company and the government. The Central Bank holds the securities and sells them to Authorized Financial Institutions at a price that reflects the SITME exchange rate of 5.3 VEF/US$. Individuals and companies that wish to access dollars need to place specific orders with their banks. Then the banks, on behalf of their clients, buy the dollar denominated bonds from the Central Bank with Venezuelan Bolivares. When US dollars are required, the client instructs their bank to sell these bonds out in the international market, thus generating the US dollars that the client needs. The dollars are then transferred to the client's bank account for a commission.”- EDC Economics reports.