About GH¢1.01 billion short-term treasury securities (91-Day & 182-Day), as well as GH¢200 million 2-year note, are expected to be auctioned tomorrow November 10, 2017. The instruments which mainly will be used to settle maturing debts are however expected to be issued on Monday, November 13, 2017.
Indications are that the securities may be undersubscribed because of investor interest in alternative assets such as mutual funds and the stock market which are doing well this year.
While many stocks on the Ghana Stock Exchange are giving appreciable returns, some mutual funds are giving rates of 20 percent and above, compared to about 13.33 and 13.78 percent yield on treasury bill. Many of the treasury securities auctioned this year have been undersubscribed because of the lower yields. However, the school of thought is that the lower the interest on treasury bills, the better for the economy as lending rates also fall.
Last week, treasury yields dropped in line with lower inflation expectations. The yield on the 91-day bill reduced by 0.17 points to 13.16 percent, while that of the 182-day bill went down by 0.05 percent to 13.78 percent.
On Monday, the country sold GH¢2.29 billion ($519 million) of a 10-year bond as part of ESLA launched to repay debts owed by the Volta River Authority and the Electricity Company of Ghana. The funds raised were lower than expected, but the yield was 19.5 percent.
Some analysts ascribed the shortfall to the absence of a sovereign guarantee.
The 7-year bond was rather oversubscribed by 2.4 billion cedis, about US$548 million. The yield was 19.0 percent. Meanwhile, government issued a second dollar bond on November 7, 2017 to develop local funding sources to support the economy. The bond which is second to be issued was opened only to Ghanaians.
The first 2-year dollar bond raised $94.64 million with an interest rate of 6 percent. The issue size has not been announced but media reports indicate that the government is targeting a range of $50 million-$100 million. Bids were open on Tuesday until final pricing today November 9, 2017. Settlement is slated for November 13.
In June and July 2017, government through the Bank of Ghana borrowed GH¢3.25 billion in notes and bonds respectively.
Source: ghanaweb.com (Thefinderonline.com)