Africa

Emerging markets bonds sold off after the US Federal Reserve indicated a more hawkish tone on Wednesday — but much like what happened after the Brexit result, spreads came off their wides quite quickly.

Nigeria’s sovereign bond prices have rallied with a new Eurobond expected in January despite the government reporting on Monday N2.2tr ($7bn) of unrecorded debt, equivalent to 2.3% of the country’s GDP.

South African gold miner Sibanye has agreed to buy US palladium miner Stillwater for $2.2bn and will raise a $2.7bn loan to pay for the acquisition. Sibanye joins South African borrowers Steinhoff and Aspen in raising large loans for M&A this year.

Tanzania has announced plans to issue a Eurobond in 2017/18 and will be hoping to put paid to the past with the new issue after its debut bond, a private placement, hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons last year.

In this round-up, China saw another sizeable drop to its foreign exchange reserves in November, the Shenzhen Connect saw subdued trading activity in its first four days, and Egypt signed its first currency swap line with China. Plus, a recap of our coverage this week.

Nigeria has picked three banks to manage its first sovereign trade since July 2013.

Nigeria has picked three banks to manage its first sovereign trade since July 2013.

The longer dated tranche of African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank’s) two and three year loan received the most commitments in general syndication even though it was the first time the borrower borrowed at such a long tenor.

Standard & Poor’s has surprised to the upside, revising Poland’s outlook to stable from negative while maintaining South Africa’s investment grade status last Friday. The latter decision prompted a 15bp-20bp rally in both South African sovereign and corporate debt.

Though Egypt is reeling from the central bank’s action to float its currency last month two Egyptian borrowers are in the market for hard currency loans this week, but unsecured corporate loans will be slower to come, said bankers.

The busy equity block trade action in Europe since the US election has continued into its third week, though market participants are beginning to brace for the outcome of the Italian referendum on Sunday.

Holders of South African assets face another nervous Friday waiting for a sovereign rating decision, this time from S&P.