Peru Group Relaunches NYC Roadshows on Downgrade ‘Wake-Up Call’
(Bloomberg) -- A nonprofit funded by Peruvian industry groups is relaunching a recurrent roadshow for investors in September in New York City, aimed at promoting the Andean nation and assuaging concerns following a key credit downgrade.
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InPeru is organizing events with investors and traveling with the minister of economy and finance, the energy and mines minister and a senior central bank official, said the group’s executive director. InPeru had been active before the pandemic, but is organizing its first roadshow abroad since 2019, a move that was accelerated by S&P Global Ratings’s decision in April to downgrade Peru to one notch above junk.
“I think news of the downgrade was key for InPeru to decide to relaunch these visits abroad,” said Juan Carlos Mandujano, inPeru’s executive director, in an interview in Lima. He said the downgrade had been “like a clear wake-up call” and “one of the most important triggers” to organizing the event.
Peru — long one of Latin America’s best performing economies — has maintained an investment-grade rating with all three major agencies since 2009. But the pandemic, political instability that saw several presidents impeached and a slowing economy led all three agencies to downgrade Peru in recent years. Still, only S&P holds Peru just one notch above junk. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have Peru two notches above junk, but they maintain a negative outlook.
“The lack of consensus at the political level continues to prevent policies aiming to rebuild important buffers lost to the pandemic and subsequent economic crises, such as pension savings and the increase on the government’s debt burden,” S&P wrote in its decision to downgrade Peru. It added that political uncertainty had “eroded business confidence and economic growth.”
Peru’s economy is growing faster than expected this year as it recovers from a recession that was triggered by a combination of social unrest and bad weather. But there is reason to be hopeful now, Mandujano said, especially with a series of public infrastructure works being offered by the government to private corporations.
“I see this with a lot of optimism in terms of the longterm,” he said. “Opportunities to invest exist, they are an undeniable reality.”
Mandujano said inPeru was working with Bank of America and BTG Pactual to bring investors who can attend discussions with Peruvian public officials, to be held between Sept. 3-5. He added that inPeru hopes to organize more roadshows in the near future and will announce dates and locations for 2025 next month.
“This has be to a continuous, constant effort, not only when things are going well,” Mandujano said of the roadshows. “Because even in times when we don’t necessarily think we are doing well, often those are the best moments to go out and explain what is going on in the country and explain that there are always opportunities to invest.”
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