Africa Bonds

South African telecoms company MTN built a $3bn book for a $750m 10 year bond on Monday. Leads printed the maximum size that the company was considering as emerging market and investment grade buyers scrabbled for the diversification that the debut name offered.

South African telecommunications company MTN built a $3bn book for its $750m 10 year bond on Monday. Leads printed the maximum size that the company was considering as emerging market and investment grade buyers scrabbled for the diversification the debut name offered.

South African telecommunications company MTN has released price talk for its benchmark 10 year dollar bond at 240bp area over mid-swaps.

Afreximbank printed a $200m tap of its $500m 4.75% 2019s on Wednesday from a $475m book. The note was sold at a 10bp-15bp new issue premium.

Afreximbank printed a $200m tap of its $500m 4.75% 2019s on Wednesday from a $475m book. The note was sold at a 10bp-15bp new issue premium.

Afreximbank has tightened price guidance for a tap of its $500m 4.75% 2019s to 310bp-315bp over mid-swaps. A syndicate official away from the deal said that this equates to a 10-15bp premium over the pre-announcement trading level of the outstanding bond, which he called fair.

The CEEMEA bond market is packed full of new issues as a least nine new issuers are confirmed as being on the road marketing new deals.

South African First Rand Bank has mandated Citi, Mitsubishi and Rand Merchant Bank to arrange a dollar Reg S bond.

Sappi, the Austrian-South African paper maker, is considering new debt issuance in the coming year, as it seeks to refinance part of its debt and cut interest rate costs.

Sukuk is breaking free of regional boundaries to become an increasingly global market, senior IMF economists have told IFIS. Concentration risk is still one the biggest challenges for the growing market, but they expect the clear benefits of issuing sukuk bring more and more new issuers into the fold.

Some European and US investors are beginning to reconsider their involvement in Africa as a result of the spread of the Ebola virus, but local market specialists warned this week against a panic reaction to the epidemic, writes Olivier Holmey.

The sharp selloff in emerging market bonds caused by the severe volatility in US Treasuries on Wednesday hit Africa bond markets the hardest. A perfect storm engulfed the continent’s bond trading — EM investors alarmed by the Treasuries move, falling oil prices and fears over Ebola smashed any remaining resolve among investors in African bonds.