Africa Loans

The announcement this week that the IMF is on its way to issuing a further $650bn of special drawing rights, providing central banks with extra foreign currency liquidity, should not be criticised for being too little, too late. It marks a much needed return to multilateralism, something that the developing world will benefit from.

Zambia and the IMF will resume negotiations on an extended credit facility package, having missed the first deadline.

South African lender Investec has secured a syndicated loan facility, with a consortium of 29 international banks. Bank borrowers are continuing to lean on their relationship lenders in South Africa, though the environment in the country remains challenging.

African Export-Import Bank, the multilateral bank headquartered in Cairo, has provided a term loan to OCP Group, a Moroccan phosphate miner and fertiliser producer.

Ghana has secured two loan agreements, which are backed by the export credit agency of Italy, Sace. There is more room for the ECA-backed market to grow in the region, sources close to the deal said.

Syndicated lending volumes, particularly across emerging markets, have tumbled since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year. Though some had hopes that 2021 would yield more activity for lending desks, that optimism has been postponed to next year, as lenders say they simply cannot compete with other asset classes for business.

UK Export Finance, the UK's export credit agency, has provided its largest ever overseas infrastructure guarantee to support the construction of two new monorails in Egypt. JP Morgan is leading a group of commercial lenders in providing the funding.

Credit rating agencies are attracting harsh criticism over their treatment of emerging market sovereigns. Some in the bond markets believe it threatens to undermine their authority when it comes to assessing creditworthiness.

Nigeria’s Bank of Industry, which is majority state-owned, has raised a $1bn syndicated loan in one of the rare sparks of emerging market loan activity over the last 12 months. After a disappointing year, bankers are longing for a return to pre-Covid issuance volumes.

The World Bank’s IFC has provided a $200m loan to Nedbank, which is part of a broader attempt to help South African banks grow their green finance operations.

Zambia is headed for a default next week, as GlobalCapital understands the bondholder committee responsible for 40% of the sovereign Eurobonds will reject the deferral request in a vote next week.

South Africa's Standard Bank, which is 20% owned by ICBC, has raised a syndicated loan from a consortium of Chinese lenders. The transaction marks one of the few spots of activity in a market that has almost halved in size this year.