Gov’t reopens debt exchange for GH¢12.9b of local bonds

The Ghana government has announced the reopening of a debt exchange programme for holders of domestic bonds who did not participate in the deal that closed in February.

This is in exchange for a package of new tranches of the same new bonds issued by the Government as part of the February 2023 Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

The value of eligible bonds excluding Pension Funds Bondholders that is target for the programme is estimated at GH¢12.9 billion.

A breakdown of the figure consist of GHS137.4 million Daakye Trust Plc, GH¢1.1 billion ESLA Plc and GH¢1.7 billion Republic of Ghana bonds.

The essence of the exercise, which ends on September 22, 2023, according to the Ministry was to allow eligible bondholders who could not participate in the February 2023 Exchange on time to do so with the possibility of Government prioritising payments on the new bonds over eligible bonds.

“We believe that there is value for bondholders to participate in this invitation. Indeed, the new bonds which will include the New Tranches are expected to be more liquid than the Eligible Bonds, considering the investment base and the benchmark size of the new bonds.

“The terms of this Invitation are identical to the terms of the February 2023 Exchange except that the relevant dates for this reopening exercise have changed as indicated in the Exchange Memorandum,” the Ministry of Finance said in a press statement.

The statement also indicated that government will issue the new tranches on September 29 which is reopening settlement date, to Eligible Holders whose offers are accepted for credit to the account of such Eligible Holder at the Central Securities Depository (CSD).

Pursuant to the February 2023 Exchange, the Government accepted tenders from a significant majority of the holders of the securities which were within the scope of the February 2023 Exchange.

In all 16 series of the New Bonds to the persons whose tenders were accepted were issued.

This approximately consisted of 85 per cent in respect of the relevant domestic Ghana cedi treasury notes and bonds, 77 per cent of the bonds issued by E.S.L.A Plc, and 94 per cent in respect of the bonds issued by Daakye Trust Plc).

Source: gna