Ghana gets green light to raise bonds without WB guarantee

The Republic of Ghana has approvals to issue an additional Eurobond in 2015 without a World Bank-linked guarantee, according to ratings agency Moody’s.

This means that Ghana could come to the market twice in the remaining months of the year, after the sovereign mandated banks earlier on Tuesday to arrange a Eurobond that has a guarantee of up to US$400m from the International Development Association, a member of the World Bank Group.

The guarantee is expected to make up 40% of that bond’s issue, according to Moody’s. This puts the total size of the IDA-backed deal at US$1bn.

Ghana has hired Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered to arrange a series of fixed-income investor meetings in Europe and the US running from September 23 to September 30.

Ghana is rated B3 by Moody’s and B- by Standard & Poor’s and B by Fitch, though the partially guaranteed notes are expected to be rated B1 by Moody’s and BB- by Fitch.