Highlight:
* The London branch of Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Securities are joint lead managers and bookrunners of the debut. Ethiopia also hired the French firm Lazard Frères as a financial advisor, according to the preliminary Prospectus document HornAffairs has obtained.
Yes you read it right, Ethiopia, the country many Europeans were introduced to through those distressing famine images three decades ago, is now on a roadshow offering Eurobonds.
An Ethiopian delegation is out on a tour across Europe and the US for a series of fixed income investor meetings organized by Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan.
The delegation is slated to hold a series of meetings for a week starting from November 26.
Ethiopia’s announcement of a maiden debut dollar bond roadshow on Tuesday follows the first credit ratings it received in May, in preparation for a potential debut.
Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings rated Ethiopia B1, B and B, respectively. Moody’s at the time said its rating reflects Ethiopia’s strong economic growth in the past decade.
Ethiopia’s GDP grew on average by 10.9% from 2003 – 2013 compared to the 6.1% growth forecast for Sub-Saharan African countries.
The London branch of Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Securities are joint lead managers and bookrunners of the debut.
Ethiopia also hired the French firm Lazard Frères as a financial advisor, according to the preliminary Prospectus document HornAffairs has obtained.
It is anticipated that Ethiopia is to issue a 10-year note looking to raise about US$1bln and intends “to fund planned Government capital expenditure in priority areas including industrial zone development and the development of the sugar and energy industries” according to the document.
Frontier-market countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, and Pakistan have all announced bond debut plans the same day before the window of issuing new debt closes in mid-December for weeks.
The year-end rush is common for small borrowers as to avoid the risk of getting swamped out by a lot of issuances in January.
Ethiopia’s Notes are expected to be traded on the Irish Stock Exchange Main Securities Market on which they will be listed on or around the debut date. Ethiopia is projected to achieve similar success due to its low external debt to GDP ratio of 20% and IMF’s estimation that puts her in the top ten fastest growing economies of the world.
********
