Government has initiated processes to issue for the second time in this quarter, two year treasury bonds, which will maturity in late February, 2021. This is in line with the public debt securities issuance calendar released on January 14, 2019 by the Finance Ministry.
The first issuance, done last month, was a tap re-opening of the two-year Treasury Bond , which is expected to mature in January 2021.
This involved an outstanding amount of GHc 378.04 million issued at a coupon rate of 19.75 percent.
The latest bonds will be issued with each having a face value of GHc1, with a minimum subscription of GHc 50,000 and in multiples of GHc 1,000 thereafter. The offer will be open to both local and foreign investors.
The two-year notes would be issued through Barclays Bank, Databank, Stanbic Bank, Fidelity Bank and IC Securities acting as book runners for government.
All bids are expected to be received by midday on Thursday, February 21, 2019.
Successful bids will be cleared at a single clearing level. However in the event of oversubscription, there will be a discretionary allocation at a single clearing level.
Per the issuance calendar of the Ministry, government aims to build benchmark bonds through the issuance of the different tenured instruments, including the two-Year Note which will be issued once a month through the book-building method.
Other Issuances
Going by the issuance calendar for the first quarter of 2019, two year bond issuances, open to foreign as well as local investors were be issued to the tune of GHc1,000 million in January, with another GHc400 billion in February and another GHc400 billion in March, totaling GHc1,800 million.
Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy
According to the 2019 debt strategy, which will be a continuation of the strategy implemented in 2018, government would issue an annual borrowing and recovery plan for 2019 in line with section 60 (5) of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Law.
By Joshua W. Amlanu
