Africa Bonds

Brait, the South African private equity firm listed in Luxembourg and Johannesburg, issued a £350m convertible bond on Friday September 11. A banker at one of the leads said the deal, a true credit instrument, was very unusual for a company of this kind.

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a pan-African multilateral development finance institution, has returned to the market with a short dated medium term note and could print in the format again soon.

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has embarked on a non-deal roadshow, with Lazard engaged as financial advisor and Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan helping to arrange investor meetings.

Outflows from emerging market portfolios since the August unrest are edging ever closer to the volumes seem during the Taper Tantrum of 2013.

BNP Paribas has walked away from a African sovereign bond mandate because of compliance issues. The bond, for Angola, is expected to have a size of at least $1bn.

BNP Paribas has been forced to return another bond mandate in the emerging markets because of compliance issues.

A week of equity market madness has left many Middle East and African bonds anywhere from 20bp to over 100bp wider since Monday, and dashed hopes of a rousing restart to CEEMEA supply come September. But for the Middle East, at least, debt bankers are looking forward to a bumper 2016.

AngloGold Ashanti is offering to purchase for cash up to $810m of its $1.25bn 8.5% 2020s, surprising some analysts who had been expecting the company to wait until the call date on the notes next year to repurchase the bonds.

Plunging Middle East stock markets have yanked bond spreads wider in their wake and raised doubts about the chance of a strong CEEMEA restart in September.

There aren’t many corporate insolvencies that would make a good movie. But any scriptwriters out there wanting to emulate the success of the Enron film should read our coverage of Afren this week.

Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution, has placed its inaugural MTN, following demand from a Southeast Asian buyer.

Ukraine’s sovereign debt restructuring, Argentinian primary elections and a potential Turkish coalition government are keeping debt bankers alert while the primary bond market takes its summer break.