North Africa

The Arab Republic of Egypt printed its $4bn triple tranche bond on Tuesday from a book that peaked at $12.5bn, despite another EM issuer — Russia's GTLK — having to postpone because of market volatility. A rival syndicate banker called the note cheap, but necessarily so.

The Arab Republic of Egypt is providing the first big test of the resilience of emerging market debt since last week's volatility with a triple tranche dollar bond. Bankers eyeing the trade say the book size, and amount of price revision, will be a real indicator of investor appetite for riskier EM debt now the shine has come off the market.

Emerging market borrowers will front-load their funding tasks in 2018, according to several EM bankers who are predicting a busy month.

Global Telecom, a telecommunications company founded in Egypt and headquartered in the Netherlands, has extended a $200m loan by six months.

The Republic of Egypt is planning to issue a euro denominated bond, its finance minister Amr El-Garhy told GlobalCapital at the IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC. However, investors are not convinced the sovereign will be able to get the deal done.

Seven years after first being mooted, draft Moroccan covered bond legislation is expected to emerge in the first half of next year, when it could be followed by supply. Fitch Ratings believes covered bonds will spur retail mortgage lending and will have a positive credit impact on banks.

Egypt garnered a mammoth $11bn book this week, letting it boost the size of its tap to $3bn as investors bet on a better future for the country under the stewardship of the International Monetary Fund.

A mammoth $11bn book helped Egypt take $3bn for the price of $2bn with its triple tranche tap, according to a banker on the deal, as demand for higher yielding EM credits continues.

Arab Republic of Egypt hit the screens on Wednesday morning with a much touted re-opening of its 2022, 2027 and 2047 bonds.

A $2bn tap from Oman on Tuesday has pushed the CEEMEA bond market into record territory. Bond issuance stands at $100.2bn, surpassing 2013's record of $99.7bn over the same period.

Tunisia’s first Eurobond since 2005 demonstrated a firm show of support for a borrower which acknowledges it still has many issues to address – social, political and economic. But despite the deal’s success, Finance Minister Lamia Zribi said that Tunisia is keen to issue aid-backed bonds in future, in order to keep costs down.

Fitch’s downgrade of Tunisia’s credit rating was based on out-of-date information and negatively impacted the sovereign’s recent Eurobond trade, Lamia Zribi, Tunisia’s finance minister told GlobalCapital.