Africa Bonds

Systemic corruption, excessive reliance on the courts, and risk of judicial overreach will erode institutional strength, and weigh on growth in South Africa, said Moody’s on Friday as it lowered the country’s rating to Baa3 from Baa2.

Côte d’Ivoire broke new ground on Thursday with the first euro-denominated trade from a sub-Saharan borrower outside of South Africa. Though the borrower paid up substantially over its dollar curve, it succeeded in its intention to open the market for itself, and for its peers, said bankers on the deal.

Nigeria on Wednesday added to a building pipeline of African credit with a diaspora bond, the first of its kind from a sub-Saharan African country.

Nigeria is asking for funding support from its nationals living abroad with a new SEC-registered trade.

Ivory Coast was on track with its dual tranche dollar and euro offering with the latter drawing plenty of attention from market commentators who referred to the pricing on offer as “insane.”

South Africa's Sibanye Gold has mandated banks for a $1bn bond offering which will be used to refinance part of a bridge loan used to acquire Stillwater Mining Company.

Tensions in the GCC are rattling the buyside as both bank and non-bank investors wait for clarity over how the rift between Qatar and other regional states will develop. In the broader CEEMEA debt market, investors are eyeing Turkey’s new euro trade as an opportunity to find some juice in the low yield environment, and anticipating the dual tranche offering from Côte d’Ivoire on Thursday.

After closing its largest ever loan African Export-Import Bank has named banks for a dollar bond of up to seven years.

Investor appetite for yield and renewed confidence in the Nigerian financial sector helped United Bank for Africa (UBA) size an inaugural dollar bond at the top end of the target range on Thursday.

United Bank of Africa (UBA) is set to become the second Nigerian lender to tap the dollar market in less than two weeks after emerging with pricing for a debut five year deal on Thursday.

EM is back to work after the long weekend with Ivory Coast naming banks for its long awaited bond, and Norilsk Nickel and Tinkoff Bank from Russia, announcing their intention to issue new debt.

The drought of equity-linked bond issuance in EMEA has suddenly ended this week, with the launch of two deals in three days, by GN Store Nord, the Danish maker of hearing aids and audio devices, and Impala Platinum Holdings, the South African mining company.