The bond offering included $1.25 billion in five-year notes with an 8.625% yield and $750 million in eight-year debt at 9.45%. By the time the final terms were announced, investors had submitted nearly $10 billion in orders, according to sources.
After a strong start to emerging-market bond sales in January, with countries like Saudi Arabia and Mexico participating, activity had slowed down recently. Egypt’s move could indicate a revival in bond issuance.
As the most populous country in the Middle East, Egypt implemented its largest interest-rate hike and allowed its currency to depreciate by about 40% against the dollar in March of last year. This was part of efforts to tackle a long-standing foreign-currency shortage and attract international funding after a period of uncertainty. These changes helped secure funding commitments from the United Arab Emirates, the International Monetary Fund, and others, amounting to a global bailout of around $57 billion.
Egypt last tapped into the dollar bond market in 2023, raising $1.5 billion through its first Islamic Sukuk issuance. The last conventional bond issuance was in September 2021, when it raised $3 billion.
For this latest transaction, the government enlisted the help of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Standard Chartered Plc, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Goldman Sachs has projected that Egypt could sell between $3 billion and $4 billion in debt during the first half of this year.