Ghana sells 1.99 bn cedis worth of 5-year local bonds at 16.5%

Ghana sold 1.99 billion cedis ($448 million) worth of a fresh five-year domestic bond on Thursday and the major commodity exporter will pay a yield of 16.5 percent, joint transaction arrangers said.

Initial guidance for the bond, open to non-resident Ghanaians, was in the range of 15 percent to 16.5 percent. Total bids tendered for the paper were 2.01 billion cedis.



The government plans to issue a total of 11.13 billion cedis in the first three months of this year of which 8.96 million cedis are rollovers to restructure maturing debt.

Ghana, which exports cocoa, gold and oil, is in its final year of a $918 million credit deal with the International Monetary Fund to reduce deficits, inflation and public debt which hit 70 percent of GDP last year.

Settlement of Thursday’s bond which matures in 2023, is on Monday, said co-bookrunners Barclays Bank Ghana. The others are Stanbic Ghana, Fidelity Bank, Databank and brokerage firm ICsecurities.

Source:Reuters