Ghana has raised $750 million from the sale of 10-year Eurobonds but paid a premium to investors wary of its fiscal and current account deficits.
With investors more cautious about lending to frontier countries with shaky finances, Ghana had to pay a premium to get the deal off the ground.
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Ghana’s sale of the bonds attracted orders of over US$2 billion, a response that’s less enthusiastic than other African countries have seen in recent months.
The yield for the 10-year, dollar-denominated notes will be around 8.125%. It is sharply higher than the 6.625% Nigeria paid for its 10-year bonds this month and Rwanda which paid only 6.875% for its maiden US$400 million 10-year issue.
"This (yield) suggests that Ghana offered a decent premium to compensate investors for the risks associated with the country’s fiscal and macroeconomic imbalances," said Samir Gadio, emerging markets strategist at Standard Bank.
Seth Terkper, finance minister, said: It also bought back US$250 million of its outstanding 10-year issue due in 2017.
The bond Ghana issued in 2007, which matures in 2017, yielded as little as 4.7% in April. By the end of June, the yield was over 7%; it is now around 5.5%.
Ghana is trying to contain a budget deficit that surged to 11.8% of gross domestic product in 2012, up from 4 percent in 2011, partly as a result of public wage increases.
