Africa

South African lender Absa has mandated banks for an additional tier one dollar offering. Absa is the latest domestic bank to enter international debt markets despite the absence of the sovereign.

The IMF and Zambia have reached a "broad agreement" on a reform agenda for Africa’s first sovereign defaulter of the pandemic era. That will serve as a prelude to securing a new credit facility from the Fund and pleased investors, who noted that Zambia's bonds have made gains in recent weeks.

The number of emerging market syndicated loans is in decline for the fourth year in a row, according to Dealogic data. Bankers' outlooks for the rest of the year err on the pessimistic side, with the fallout from the pandemic being the main concern.

African Export-Import Bank launched a dual tranche dollar bond on Monday morning, with orders exceeding $3bn by midday. Emerging market bank issuers have been especially active in recent month thanks to attractive credit conditions.

South African investment company Remgro has reduced its stake in FirstRand, one of the country’s largest financial services groups, via an accelerated bookbuild.

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.