By Jorgelina do Rosario and Rachel Savage
LONDON (Reuters) -Benin is aiming to raise around $750 million this month in its inaugural dollar-denominated bond sale, according to three sources.
Benin policymakers, led by Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, are holding in person and virtual meetings with investors, with a road show trip to London and New York focused on the country’s first ever U.S.
dollar issuance.
“The government told investors it aims to issue the bond as early as next week,” one of the sources said, adding that the amortizing note will have a 14-year final maturity.
Benin is part of the countries using the West African CFA Franc that is pegged to the euro, and has until now only issued international bonds denominated in the euro currency.
The West African nation’s bond sale follows on the heels of Ivory Coast – another issuer favouring euro-denominated international bond sales – which successfully raised $2.6 billion in January.
Prior to Ivory Coast’s debt sale, there had been no international bond issuance from Sub-Saharan Africa in nearly two years with many nations hit hard by COVID-19, the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine and rising global interest rates, which made foreign currency debt prohibitively expensive for most from early 2022 onwards.
Benin’s 2035 euro-denominated bond – which was issued in 2021 with a coupon of 4.95% – currently yields around 8%, according to LSEG data.
The single B issuer has mandated Citi, JPMorgan and Societe Generale as bookrunners.
Benin finance ministry officials did not respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Jorgelina do Rosario and Rachel Savage, editing by Karin Strohecker, David Evans, William Maclean)
