Gov’t issues third Eurobond

Ghana has successfully issued its third Eurobond.

Government issued 1 billion dollars which was oversubscribed.

The USD1 billion bond has a twelve (12) year maturity, with a coupon at a rate of 8.125%.

The bond matures in 2026.

The $1 billion Eurobond will be used to fund capital expenditure in the 2014 Budget.

It will also be used as counterpart funding for pipeline projects and the refinancing of domestic and external debt.

Ghana issued its first Euro bond, a 10-year Eurobond seven years ago.

The issue, which raised US$750million from investors at a coupon of 8.5 percent, made Ghana the first nation in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa to borrow from international capital markets.

Last year Ghana successfully raised $1 billion from the international market in the second issue which was heavily oversubscribed.

Last year’s 10-year bond raised US$750million in cash and US$250million in a buy-back of the 2007 issue.

Earlier the Governor of the bank of Ghana and Finance Minister Seth Terkper asserted that the Eurobond inflows as well the cocoa loan syndication would help the cedi to stabilize which has depreciated against the dollar by about 30 percent this year alone.

Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank were lead transaction advisors for the Eurobond issue.

While local firms Databank, EDC Stockbrokers a subsidiary of the Ecobank Group and Strategic African Securities were the co- managers of the transaction.

Dentons and JLD & MB Legal Consultancy were international and local counsel for the transaction respectively.

Credit: citifmonline