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Thursday, 8 February 2018

Kenya appoints JPMorgan, three others as advisers for Eurobond sale

Kenya has appointed four banks including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to manage a sale of Eurobonds planned within the next two months, sources familiar with the plan revealed.
Other financial institutions mandated to midwife the bond issuance include Standard Chartered Bank Plc and Standard Bank Group’s Kenyan unit Stanbic Holdings. Image result for Kenya eurobond

Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich didn’t answer two calls to his mobile Wednesday, while Treasury Director of Budget Geoffrey Mwau declined to comment when asked about planned sale on Tuesday.
The Treasury will seek to raise $1.5 billion to $3 billion in bonds, with a tenor of up 15 years, according to two of the people. JPMorgan, Citigroup, Standard Chartered and Stanbic declined to comment.
Kenya is increasing the amount of funding it raises from foreign sources as the central bank of East Africa’s biggest economy forecasts an acceleration in growth to 6.2 percent in 2018. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration would be joining the likes of Angola, Ghana and Nigeria seeking to sell dollar-denominated debt to capitalize on rampant demand for emerging-market assets.
Kenya’s government plans to raise $3.2 billion from external sources in the fiscal year that ends June 30, according to the Treasury’s latest budget-policy statement. The government has already raised $750 million commercially this year through a loan from a syndicate of lenders led by Trade & Development Bank.
The funds will be used to settle five-year Eurobonds maturing in June 2019, and retire a $800 million syndicated loan taken in 2016, the people said. Kenya sold $2.75 billion of Eurobonds in 2014, with $750 million maturing in 2019 and $2 billion falling due in 2024.
Yields on Kenya’s existing $2 billion of Eurobonds due in June 2024 have dropped almost 130 basis points over the past 12 months to 6.03 percent by 2:56 p.m. on Wednesday in London. The rate fell to a record low of 5.45 percent on Jan. 8.

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