Second domestic dollar bond traps $221m

Ghana scooped all $221.4 million tendered for a three-year domestic dollar bond at a 6.25 percent yield on Thursday, boosting the government’s plans to explore local funding sources, arrangers said.

Initial guidance for the bond, the second to be issued by the major commodities exporter and open only to Ghanaian investors, was 6.25 percent.

Ghana is emerging from a fiscal crisis that has left it with high deficits and a steep public debt that forced the government into a credit deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) worth around $918 million in 2015.

The bond, which will mature in November 2020, was issued through a joint book-building arranged by Barclays Bank, Stanbic Bank and brokerage firm Strategic African Securities.

Settlement is slated for November 13.

The West African country last year issued its debut dollar denominated domestic bond worth $94.64 million in two-year paper with a coupon of 6 percent after an initial price range of 5.5-6.5 percent.

The government of President Nana Akufo-Addo, who assumed office in January, has pledged to cut waste and restructure public debt, which reached nearly $32 billion, or 68.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product at the end of June.