Africa Bonds

EM bond markets around the world have been forced by difficult conditions to shut down early for summer. The only trade due this week, from South Africa's Eskom, will have to attract investors that are ready to hunker down and wait for September.

Eskom’s return to markets this week is the latest example of how the best bet in the emerging markets is often not on how strong a company is, but how strong its friends are. That is a lesson well remembered for investors, as EM hits a rocky patch.

Zambia is looking for options to refinance an increasingly worrying debt pile in the wake of a ratings downgrade.

South African state-run power company Eskom is aiming to print a total of $1.5bn and is expecting to sell both guaranteed and unguaranteed tranches of its bond, according to two sources close to the deal.

Eskom is roadshowing its first international bond in three years this week, but otherwise the primary market is silent.

Eskom has until the end of next week to issue a planned dollar bond before markets shut for the summer, syndicate bankers said on Friday.

South Africa’s troubled state-run power company, Eskom, signed a $2.5bn loan from China Development Bank (CDB) this week, securing almost two-thirds of its funding requirements for the financial year and reviving hope among investors that the country’s state-owned companies have moved one step closer to returning to the capital markets. That wish was swiftly granted by Eskom mandating for its first bond since 2015. Mike Turner and Francesca Young report.

HSBC has appointed Gareth Thomas as head of global banking for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. He starts in the new job in September.

With African bond volumes set to hit an all-time high this year, it would be easy to interpret the record-breaking number as an indication that investors are set to stand by Africa as a storm hits EM. But that would be wrong — EM investors largely think that African bonds are going to tank, or at least struggle, it’s just that they are all betting on getting out first.

Grim trading in African bonds this year has not stopped DCM and syndicate bankers predicting that African Eurobond volumes will blast past historical records to hit a new high in 2018. With Angola forging ahead this week with a tap that broke a dollar hiatus of more than a month in the CEEMEA market, they look set to be proved right, writes Francesca Young.

The Republic of Angola has tapped the $1.25bn 9.375% 2048s it sold in May for a further $500m, marking the first dollar bond printed in the CEEMEA market for over a month. The deal was anchored by reverse enquiry.

First Bank of Nigeria is buying back $300m of its outstanding subordinated bonds.