North Africa

The Republic of Egypt is planning to issue a euro denominated bond, its finance minister Amr El-Garhy told GlobalCapital at the IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC. However, investors are not convinced the sovereign will be able to get the deal done.

Seven years after first being mooted, draft Moroccan covered bond legislation is expected to emerge in the first half of next year, when it could be followed by supply. Fitch Ratings believes covered bonds will spur retail mortgage lending and will have a positive credit impact on banks.

Egypt garnered a mammoth $11bn book this week, letting it boost the size of its tap to $3bn as investors bet on a better future for the country under the stewardship of the International Monetary Fund.

A mammoth $11bn book helped Egypt take $3bn for the price of $2bn with its triple tranche tap, according to a banker on the deal, as demand for higher yielding EM credits continues.

Arab Republic of Egypt hit the screens on Wednesday morning with a much touted re-opening of its 2022, 2027 and 2047 bonds.

A $2bn tap from Oman on Tuesday has pushed the CEEMEA bond market into record territory. Bond issuance stands at $100.2bn, surpassing 2013's record of $99.7bn over the same period.

Tunisia’s first Eurobond since 2005 demonstrated a firm show of support for a borrower which acknowledges it still has many issues to address – social, political and economic. But despite the deal’s success, Finance Minister Lamia Zribi said that Tunisia is keen to issue aid-backed bonds in future, in order to keep costs down.

Fitch’s downgrade of Tunisia’s credit rating was based on out-of-date information and negatively impacted the sovereign’s recent Eurobond trade, Lamia Zribi, Tunisia’s finance minister told GlobalCapital.

Even heavy indications from US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen the central bank will raise interest rates at its next meeting were not enough to derail the strong primary market in emerging market bonds.

Tunisia returned to euros for the first time since 2005 on Friday but the €800m deal was by no means a blow out and the leads were unable to move pricing as the borrower made a play for new investors.

Tunisia has set the yield on its seven year euro bond issue on Friday morning at 5.75%, unchanged from initial price thoughts.

Tunisia has opted for a two day execution strategy and is collecting indications of interest for its first euro-denominated trade since 2005, with an aim of printing the deal on Friday.