Africa

Investors, bankers and traders have lined up to pour scorn on Ghana finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s expectations that the country will issue $5bn-$10bn of century bonds before the end of the year, the first part of a plan to sell $50bn of such bonds.

African private placements are expected to rise in the coming months as issuers eschew the high prices of public bonds after the emerging markets sell-off over the summer.

Carl Mace has started at ICBC Standard Bank to trade hard currency EM sovereign debt.

Emerging markets-focused mining firm Trevali Mining has amended and extending an existing loan facility, bringing its revolving credit facility up to $275m.

Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) signed its $1.3bn trade finance facility of Thursday, as the company prepares to start funding purchases for the coming harvest.

South African chemicals and energy company Sasol has released initial price thoughts on a dual tranche dollar bond on Thursday morning in London.

More supranational banks will use synthetic securitization and other risk transfer techniques, specialists believe, after the African Development Bank’s trailblazing $1bn deal, revealed this week, writes Jon Hay.

The UK’s Gemcorp has given a $250m loan to the Zimbabwe sovereign to help the country buy essential goods, as low dollar liquidity puts the squeeze on importers.

The flotation of Cipla Quality Chemical Industries (CiplaQCIL) on the Ugandan stock exchange could persuade fellow African issuers to follow suit.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has for the first time turned exclusively to the Korean banking market to sign a $150m club loan.

The African Development Bank has become the first supranational bank to use a securitization sold to private investors to free up balance sheet capacity. The deal, four years in the making, demonstrates a new technique that could expand development banks’ firepower to promote development.

The African Development Bank’s $1bn synthetic securitization is not its first risk transfer transaction, and will not be its last. The bank has marked itself out as a leader in this sphere, though the effort to get such techniques to work is also highly collaborative.