Africa Bonds

The International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp is set to re-issue $860m of commercial paper style sukuk next week – its seventh issue to date under its short term sukuk programme.

Nigerian financial First City Monument Bank has postponed its debut bond plans.

Helios Towers Nigeria sold a debut dollar bond on Tuesday — only the second international corporate bond ever from that country. The notes were trading up a full cash point higher in the secondary market on Wednesday and offer a new benchmark for Nigeria corporates, with at least one follow on deal expected in the next few weeks.

With the first half of the year completed, regular IFIS league table-topper HSBC has taken a commanding lead in dollar sukuk for share of total issuance value, but Emirates NBD and JP Morgan have surged up the ranks for first ever top five placings, with ENBD on more dollar deals in the period than any other bank. Meanwhile, CIMB has opened a gap in global sukuk arranging after trailing Maybank at this time last year, but the competition looks set to heat up further in the second half.

Helios Towers Nigeria is set to price a $250m five year non-call three deal on Tuesday afternoon, having received over $600m in orders for its debut dollar bond.

Ivory Coast has mandated BNP Paribas, Citi and Deutsche Bank to organise a series of fixed income investor meetings in London and the US starting on Wednesday. A 144A/Reg S dollar benchmark may follow, its first since civil war broke out in the country three years ago.

It is a fine testament to the growing stature of the Islamic finance market that various novel borrowers are pressing ahead with plans to issue international sukuk for the first time — the likes of Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Dogus Group among them. But with so many debut deals revving up to join an autumnal convoy, those that can beat the traffic are advised to do so.

Investors and analysts are predicting strong demand for Helios Towers Nigeria’s debut dollar deal based on informal price thoughts of an 8% yield that they said sole lead Bank of America Merrill Lynch provided them with. The bookrunner denied that any pricing indications had been communicated to investors.

Eaglestone Asset Management has appointed Jussi Savukoski to head its new private equity fund devoted to investments in sub-Saharan Africa.

South Africa has picked three banks to lead manage a foreign currency bond while Nigerian duo Helios Towers and First City Monument Bank are on the road ahead of debut dollar deals, promising a healthy pipeline of African supply.

Sukuk issuance has passed last year’s first half total after a busy second quarter compensated for a slow start to the year. The volumes were aided by a rare international perpetual sukuk from Al Hilal and the United Kingdom government’s debut deal, both placed in the last week before Ramadan.

South Africa has picked three banks to lead manage a foreign currency bond. The deal comes with the sovereign's existing dollar bonds trading wider despite the end of a long-running mining strike and with the ailing economy showing little sign of improvement, said emerging market analysts.