Ghana Is Said to Name Citi, Three Others to Market Eurobond

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana appointed Citigroup Inc., JP Morgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp. and Standard Chartered Plc as head arrangers to market an upcoming sale of Eurobonds, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The West African nation also named Accra-based Fidelity Bank Ltd. and IC Securities as co-arrangers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Ghana wants to sell as much as $2.5 billion of debt, of which the country plans to use$1 billion to help meet its 2018 budget and as much as $1.5 billion to refinance existing dollar bonds, should it be able to sell the securities at a cheaper rate, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said March 14.

Spokesmen for StanChart, Citi and Bank of America wouldn’t immediately comment when contacted by phone and email. JP Morgan declined to comment when contacted by phone. Ofori-Atta and Jim Baiden, managing director of Fidelity Bank, didn’t answer calls seeking comment. IC Securities MD Kwabena Osei-Boateng was not available when his office was called

Ghana will follow other sub-Saharan African issuers such as Ivory Coast and Kenya which have rushed to sell debt before the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy-tightening path pushes yields higher. Last week, Ivory Coast attracted more than 4 billion euros ($4.9 billion) in bids for an issuance of about 1.7 billion euros in debt.

Source: Bloomberg Business News