Rating: Ba1/BBB-/BB+
Tranche 1: $750m Reg S/144A
Maturity: 15 December 2027
Issue/reoffer price: 99.763
Coupon: 2.375%
Spread at reoffer: 175bp over mid-swaps
Tranche 2: $1bn Reg S/144A
Maturity: 15 December 2032
Issue/reoffer price: 99.570
Coupon: 3%
Spread at reoffer: 200bp over mid-swaps
Tranche 3: $1.25bn Reg S/144A
Maturity: 15 December 2050
Issue/reoffer price: 100
Coupon: 4%
Spread at reoffer: 261.3bp over mid-swaps
Launch date: Tuesday, December 15
Payment date: December 8
Joint books: Barclays, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, Natixis
Bookrunner’s comment:
Morocco anticipated its 2021 financing needs and also wanted to repair some of the pandemic’s impact on its macro fundamentals, so it adopted a flexible approach to this trade in terms of maturity and size. It worked very well and Morocco achieved a final order book of over $14bn.
Morocco went for dollars to diversify the debt in terms of its dollar to euro balance and also to diversify its investor base. Investors had been approaching us and the issuer, asking when they were going to come back to dollars… Dollar investors want to incorporate Moroccan risk into their portfolios, seeing as Morocco is part of the EMBI.
This trade was a rebalancing act in terms of investor diversification and in terms of having a smoother maturity profile. Doing a triple-tranche deal with a 30 year tranche in euros is not accessible at this pricing.