Contents continued March/April 2013 Itaú Investor Perception Study 37 Highs and lows Growing consumer demand is propelling investor interest in LatAm’s retail assets Loan market 40 Back-up plans Bonds are in fashion, but lending to LatAm’s corporates is not about to go away Loan market 40 37 Itaú investor study Brazil 43 Infrastructure: Upping the ante Brazil is stepping up its big infrastructure drive, but international investors need some convincing 46 Real estate funds: Reaching overseas Complex rules and taxes are keeping international money away from fast growing real estate funds 50 Brazil Stars Index: Managing best The LatinFinance M&E Brazil Stars index leaves the benchmark in the dust 43 Brazil investment Mexico state debt 51 Mexico 51 Sub-sovereign debt: Short-term troubles The government is cracking down on how states and municipalities borrow 55 Banking: Basel high ground Banks hope to benefit from an early-mover advantage on international regulations 57 Real estate funds: Fibra advance 59 Panama infrastructure Parting shot 64 “We have maintained the economic fundamentals. But beyond that, we have a matrix that is going to give a new impulse to the economy” Guido Mantega, finance minister, Brazil see page 43 2 LATINFINANCE March/April 2013 As Mexico’s real estate funds industry develops, some hope the country has a mini-US REIT market in the making Panama 59 Infrastructure: Counting the cost Infrastructure is racing ahead as Panama expands the canal, but worries about the deficit lurk Parting shot 64 Casualties of war Chile’s finance minister Felipe Larraín warns that things could get ugly as global currency wars intensify