North Africa

Egypt’s Banque Misr is looking to raise dollar funding from the loan market, according to lenders, continuing the trend of financial institutions in the country raising international bank debt.

Arab Republic of Egypt’s bonds have rallied 50bp since last week with investors acting on a positive endorsement from Standard & Poor’s. Analysts say that any positive signals or third party endorsements will become increasingly important to the buyside as credit differentiation comes into play.

National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is due to launch a dollar denominated three year loan imminently.

Egypt paid a generous spread to access euros on Monday, during a volatile day for emerging market assets.

Egypt opened books on its debut dual tranche euro issue on Monday, following investor meetings in Europe last week.

Three CEEMEA issuers are embarking on roadshows — the Arab Republic of Egypt, Sharjah Islamic Bank and Kazmunaygaz.

The Arab Republic of Egypt has named four banks to manage its first euro-denominated bond sale.

The pipeline for euro-denominated African bonds is beginning to bulge, with Cote d’Ivoire announcing plans to follow Senegal to the market this week and Tunisia and Egypt preparing their own deals. But, as Virginia Furness reports, while large euro books show there is strong appetite for speculative grade supply, and is opening up a new funding channel for EM borrowers, the cost of funding in the currency versus dollars is unlikely to improve.

The Arab Republic of Egypt printed its $4bn triple tranche bond on Tuesday from a book that peaked at $12.5bn, despite another EM issuer — Russia's GTLK — having to postpone because of market volatility. A rival syndicate banker called the note cheap, but necessarily so.

The Arab Republic of Egypt is providing the first big test of the resilience of emerging market debt since last week's volatility with a triple tranche dollar bond. Bankers eyeing the trade say the book size, and amount of price revision, will be a real indicator of investor appetite for riskier EM debt now the shine has come off the market.

Emerging market borrowers will front-load their funding tasks in 2018, according to several EM bankers who are predicting a busy month.

Global Telecom, a telecommunications company founded in Egypt and headquartered in the Netherlands, has extended a $200m loan by six months.