Cape Town – National Treasury announced on Wednesday that it had successfully placed US$2bn (R25.1bn) worth of 12 to 20 year notes in the international capital markets, hailing it as a sign of the international market’s confidence in South Africa’s economic policy framework.
National Treasury said the 12-year maturation notes had a total issuance amount of $1.4bn (R17.6bn) while the 30-year notes had a total issuance amount of $600m (R7.5bn).
In a statement National Treasury said the markets had a healthy appetite for the new bonds as the transaction was more than 1.7 times oversubscribed.
“The 12-year bond priced at a coupon rate of 5.875% (re-offer price 99.992%) which represents a spread of 280.5 basis points above the 10-year US Treasury benchmark bond.
“The 30-year bond priced at a coupon rate of 6.300% (re-offer price 99.991%) which represents a spread of 310.1 basis points above the 30-year US Treasury benchmark bond,” the statement said.
The statement said the bonds saw demand from across all the major financial centres in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Middle East and Asia.
“The South African government sees the success of the transaction as an expression of investor confidence in the country’s sound macro-economic policy framework and prudent fiscal management,” the statement said.
National Treasury mandated Deutsche Bank/ Nedbank (consortium), JP Morgan, Rand Merchant Bank and Standard Bank as joint book runners.
The appointment included each bank’s BEE partners, namely RHO Capital and Pamoja Capital, Dew Partners, Basis Points Capital, and Africa Rising Capital respectively, the statement concluded.