Egypt plans more Eurobond issues in coming months

Reuters

Egypt will issue a $1.8 billion bond by the end of November and plans to launch a new $10 billion Eurobond
programme next year, the Boursa
newspaper reported on Sunday.
Finance Minister Amr El Garhy told the newspaper that Cairo planned to sell Eurobonds worth $3 billion to
$4 billion in the first quarter of 2018.
Earlier this year, Egypt sold $7 billion in five-, 10- and 30-year bonds, part of its return to international markets after turmoil following the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
El Garhy said the finance ministry would decide within the next two weeks when to issue the euro-denominated bonds but it would be before the end of November. That would be part of the existing programme.
“The issue will be in the range of 1.5 billion euros after the approval of the cabinet,” he said.
“We aim at issuing bonds worth between $3 billion and $4 billion during the first quarter of the next year.”
“The news is credit positive, as Egypt is aggressively diversifying its funding source and capitalizing well on improving conditions to attract foreign currency inflows,” said Hany Farahat, senior economist at Cairo-based CI Capital. Egypt’s foreign reserves jumped to $36.04 billion at the end of July, according to the central bank, their highest level since the 2011 uprising hammered the economy
and foreign investment, draining the
country of foreign currency.