Africa Bonds

The poll is open for GlobalCapital’s Equity Capital Markets Awards for 2017 and we invite market participants to have their say on the best performers of last year.

After spooking the market with allusions to debt ‘renegotations’ earlier this week, the Angolan Ministry of Finance has issued a statement saying it “stands behind all the debt obligations to its lenders.” It added that it will look to buy back its short term debts, while looking to obtain better terms on long term debts.

Emerging market borrowers will front-load their funding tasks in 2018, according to several EM bankers who are predicting a busy month.

Angola left emerging market fund managers confused on Wednesday, after announcing that it was looking to renegotiate the terms of its outstanding external debt. But while the news initially filled the buy-side with dread, analysts believe that the sovereign is referring to a renegotiation of its bilateral debt, though a Eurobond restructuring is still possible.

Emerging market bond fund managers say they are markedly more optimistic than 12 months ago when the "whole world was negative" after the start of Donald Trump’s US presidential term. And with plenty of sovereign trades rumoured for January, there is an abundance of investment opportunities.

Emerging market borrowers will front-load their funding tasks in 2018, according to several EM bankers who are predicting a busy month.

For CEEMEA bonds, 2017 was a record breaking year and one which pushed the boundaries of product, tenor, and issuer. The $200bn of bonds raised in CEEMEA, and the $140bn raised in Latin America are the highest annual volumes on record. Investors’ seemingly insatiable appetite for EM debt fuelled massive inflows into the asset class and kept the many idiosyncratic risk events – from Qatar’s regional isolation to deteriorating relations between Turkey and the US– contained. Picking out the deals of the year for 2017 was not easy for GlobalCapital’s editorial team, but after much deliberation the below were chosen.

Nomura has hired Nihal Elkafrawi as head of client coverage for the Middle East and north Africa. She will foster cross-selling opportunities for global markets and investment banking, the bank said in a statement.

Top emerging market bond investors are warning that making strong returns will be much more difficult in 2018, as elections and interest rate risk introduce more volatility into the markets.

How the Schuldschein market reacts when a borrower has payment difficulties has been a perennial question since the instrument reached a global audience. The revelations about possible false accounting at Steinhoff are likely to prove one of the market's biggest tests yet.

Nigeria has become the first government in Africa to issue a green bond, with a N10.69bn ($29m) five year issue led by Chapel Hill Denham, a local investment bank.

Steinhoff International’s shares jolted downwards again today as it met its banks in London, seeking their support to get through the difficulties caused by apparent false accounting.