Government is expected to conclude the auctioning of the energy bond Friday, November 3, 2017; barring any last minute changes.
Managers of the bond had to extend the auction for the bond after they failed to raise the 6 billion cedis expected.
The 7 year bond made the 2.4 billion cedi mark after auctioning closed on Friday [October 27, 2017].
The 10 year bond originally targeted to raise 3.6 billion cedis.
But as at Friday, October 27, the managers had accrued just about 900 million cedis.
This led to the extension of auctioning by a week, to November 3, 2017.
Economist, Dr. Eric Osei Assibey in an earlier interview explained to Citi Business News he is hopeful the managers will make the mark.
“It could just be around the figure expected so let’s give some plus or minus to that…the confidence level over the last couple of months have increased by the fact that the micro economic indicators are on track and also having the IMF coming in to back the government’s policies and others.”
Government plans to pay an interest of 19.5% on the ten year bond.
This it says is informed by a responsible approach to pricing and not to overpay.
But Economist and Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Lord Mensah does not agree.
He explained his reasons for the prediction as,
“If you look at this bond, it is going to a specific sector and how the sector has performed over the years will determine the pricing. In addition, investors will be looking at the interest rate dynamics of the country; if you consider the NPP government, it has a tendency to bring down interest rates so if investors are going to commit for some number of years for a particular bond, definitely it must have to make projections for such interest rates.”
It is still unclear whether this issuance is a Sovereign or corporate bond as the total amount realized is expected to be announced by 5 pm today.
The energy bond is primarily expected to correct the balance sheets of banks and make the power companies more efficient.
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Source: Citifmonline.com
