Egypt chooses 4 international banks to run Eurobond issuance

CAIRO – 12 March 2018: Egypt has chosen four international investment banks to manage its anticipated euro denominated Eurobonds in 2018, an official statement announced Monday.

The statement showed that the banks are Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas Bank, Bank of Alexandria "São Paulo" and Standard Chartered Bank.

Egypt will deal with the same legal offices it cooperated with during the last issue of Eurobonds; Office of the local legal counsel (Tamimi & Company) and the Office of the International Legal Counsel (Dechert).

The value of the issue is expected to be ‎€ 1-1.5 billion and will be sold in April 2018.

Minister of Finance Amr el-Garhy said earlier that Egypt will conduct a roadshow to promote the Eurobonds issuance in a number of European countries in April.

Egypt returned to the international bond markets on February 14 with issuing Eurobonds worth $4 billion on three tranches; three, five and 30 years.

The purchase requests exceeded $12 billion in the first few hours after the issuance despite the volatility of the international stock markets then, according to the Finance Ministry.

Egypt’s foreign reserves reached unprecedented levels of $42.5 billion in February after the recent Eurobond sale, while the country’s foreign debt increased 34.4 percent to stand at $80.8 billion in September 2017.

Egypt issued $7 billion in Eurobonds' sales in January and May 2017 on the global bond market, both of which were oversubscribed, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Egypt had embarked on a bold economic reform program that included the introduction of taxes, such as the Value added tax (VAT), and cutting energy subsidies, with the aim of trimming the budget deficit.

The country has floated its currency in November 2016 before it clinched a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Egypt is to receive a fourth disbursal of that loan, worth $2 billion, in June or July, the Finance Ministry said in previous statements, bringing the total it has received to $8 billion.