Africa

The Singapore-incorporated global energy company Puma Energy has bounced back after a planned bond issuance last year failed to materialise, raising $590m in the loan market. Sources say the company’s change of management and reorganisation brought a “sense of relief”.

As its debt-to-GDP ratio inflates and its public finances come under pressure, some have wondered if Tunisia will succumb to a debt restructuring process. But the governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia, Marouane El Abassi, told GlobalCapital that the country is intent on securing new IMF funding as a prerequisite to entering capital markets.

A consortium of international lenders is funding the development of Egypt’s largest solar plant.

Airtel Africa, the UK telecommunication company providing services across Africa, has raised $500m from a range of international lenders. It becomes one of the latest Africa-based issuers to inject activity into the syndicated loan market.

Amid a broader downturn in emerging market syndicated loans, several African issuers — including sovereigns — are seeking debt facilities from international lenders.

An uneven economic recovery is expected across emerging and developed markets over the next year, the IMF said this week during its spring meetings. Meanwhile, a proposed boost to special drawing rights has split market opinion.

The announcement this week that the IMF is on its way to issuing a further $650bn of special drawing rights, providing central banks with extra foreign currency liquidity, should not be criticised for being too little, too late. It marks a much needed return to multilateralism, something that the developing world will benefit from.

Rating: B3/B-/B

Volatility in the US Treasury market has been the thorn in emerging market bond issuers' sides this quarter. Though bankers had expected borrowers front-load issuance, concerns about global interest rates and investor appetite have dulled volumes.

The Republic of Ghana entered the bond market on Monday to sell a multi-tranche dollar bond, which some market participants have called “ambitious”. Some believe the issuer is putting size before price as it tries to locate funding for its 2021 budget.

Zambia and the IMF will resume negotiations on an extended credit facility package, having missed the first deadline.

Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production company Seplat Petroleum entered the international bond markets on Thursday seeking to raise dollar funding. As primary issuance re-starts in the CEEMEA region, Seplat is one of a few high yielding names testing the temperature.