Banks Plan for $427 Million of Losses as Ghana Restructures Debt
- Lenders booking bond losses as high as 57% amid restructuring
- Ghana is revamping debt to finalize a $3 billion IMF bailout
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Ghana’s move to restructure its local-currency and overseas debt is weighing on banks from Africa to the UK.
Four of Africa’s biggest lenders — Standard Bank Group Ltd., FirstRand Ltd., Absa Group Ltd., and Nedbank Group Ltd. — collectively set aside 4.87 billion rand ($267 million) to account for the losses, impairing as much as 57% of local and onshore dollar denominated debt holdings. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Plc set aside $160 million.