Ghana is in talks with Standard Chartered Plc and Standard Bank Group Ltd. for a bridge loan of $750 million and will repay the facility with the proceeds of a Eurobond sale.
The finance ministry listed the proposal for a syndicated loan in Friday’s parliamentary order papers and said it is intended to “fund or refinance development projects and for liability management,” according to the document. The facility would be a short-term loan, Mark Assibey-Yeboah, chairman of the finance committee, said by phone.
“This is bridge financing against the Eurobond,” he said, adding that the bond sale may take two or three months to be finalized.
Ghana needs $2 billion in foreign-currency debt to help finance its budget and will take on an additional $1 billion if it’s able to secure loans or securities at lower rates than it’s paying for existing liabilities. Last month, West Africa’s biggest economy after Nigeria appointed five banks, including StanChart and Johannesburg-based Standard Bank, as lead arrangers for a Eurobond sale, according to people familiar with the matter.
JPMorgan, BofA Are Said Among Banks to Market Ghana Eurobond
Ghana picked five banks, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase & Co., as lead arrangers for the nation’s proposed sale of as much as $3 billion in Eurobonds, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The three other main advisers are Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered Plc and Standard Bank Group Ltd., said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The West African nation also appointed Accra-based Fidelity Bank Ltd., IC Securities Ltd. and Databank Group as co-arrangers, said one of the people.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta didn’t answer calls seeking comment. JPMorgan, Bank of America, StanChart and Morgan Stanley declined to comment on emailed queries, while spokesmen and officials for Standard Bank, IC Securities, Databank and Fidelity didn’t answer calls.
Ghana needs $2 billion in foreign-currency debt to help finance its 2019 budget and will sell an additional $1 billion if it’s able to issue the securities at lower rates than what it’s paying for existing bonds. The nation is exiting an almost $1 billion bailout program it entered into with the International Monetary Fund in 2015, when a currency crisis prompted its debt obligations to soar. A final review is due before April 4.
The world’s second-biggest cocoa grower and the continent’s largest gold producer after South Africa is forecast to grow 7.6 percent this year, from a projected 5.6 percent in 2018, according to the government.
Source: Bloomberg
