Senegal’s 10-Year Dollar-Denominated Bonds Priced at 9.125%, Above Nigeria
Senegal sold 10-year dollar bonds, its first international offering since 2009, at a yield that was almost three percentage points higher than similarly rated Nigeria.
The government raised $500 million in the sale of the bonds 2021 that were priced to yield 9.125 percent, a banker with knowledge of the deal said. Standard & Poor’s assigned a B+ assessment, its fourth-highest junk rating, to the West African nation’s bonds, it said in a statement today. Standard Chartered Plc and Standard Bank Group Ltd. were underwriters of the sale.
Senegal had expected a yield of between 9.18 percent and 9.38 percent on the debt, whose proceeds will go toward building a toll road outside of the capital, Dakar, and helping address the country’s energy shortage, Standard Chartered said yesterday. The yield on Nigeria’s Eurobonds due 2021, which were sold in January, fell one basis point to 6.16 percent at 3:40 p.m. in London.
“It was priced attractively to entice people to participate,” Stuart Culverhouse, chief economist at London- based Exotix Ltd., said in a phone interview today. “It offers very good value. There’s not many places out there you can get a 9 percent yield at the moment.”
The yield on Senegal’s 2014 dollar bond, sold in December 2009, fell 24 basis points to 7.54 percent, an all-time low. The yield on Ghana’s $750 million of bonds due 2017, rated one step below Senegal at B by S&P, declined six basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 6.07 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Webb in London at jwebb25@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Kirkland in London at skirkland@bloomberg.net
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