The Federal Government is planning a one-week roadshow to Britain, Germany and the United States from June 19 with the book-runners for its $1bn Eurobond, with a view to issuing it this year, a timetable for the trip has indicated.
According to Reuters, the timetable released on Tuesday showed that the meetings would be led by the Finance Minster, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and other senior government officials from the Debt Management Office.
It also showed that the roadshow would begin in London on Wednesday, June 19 (today), going on to Germany on June 20, then New York and Boston, and ending in Los Angeles on June 26.
The Federal Government had recently appointed Citi Bank and Deutsche Bank to manage the $1bn planned Eurobond.
The Director-General, DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, said, “The Federal Executive Council approved the appointment of Citi and Deutsche as joint book-runners for the planned $1bn Eurobond.”
Nwankwo had said last month that the Federal Government planned to unveil the Eurobond before the end of September to fund its power and gas sector reforms.
Okonjo-Iweala had last year sought legislative backing from the House of Representatives for the floating of $1bn bond as well as another $100m Diaspora bond.
The minister, who appeared before the House Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management to defend the 2012-2014 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, said all debts were meant to promote serious infrastructural development.
Okonjo-Iweala also announced amendments to the external borrowing plan as contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Plan.
She said, “We are proposing three amendments to this external borrowing plan. We have an amendment to add water supply project for Rivers State to the tune of $200m. This will be supported through the African Development Bank to be a concessional loan.”
The Federal Government issued a $500m 10-year Eurobond two years ago, which was 2-1/2 times oversubscribed, with investors spanning 18 countries from Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa.
Last month, Nwankwo said the country would increase the amount borrowed overseas to around 40 per cent of all debt, over the next three to five years, from 12 per cent currently, to lower its funding costs.