KUWAIT (Reuters) – Morocco is aiming to sell a sovereign bond worth up to $1 billion around the end of October, though the date could be pushed back slightly depending on advice from banks, the country’s central bank governor said on Monday.
Morocco said in August it planned to sell the bond this month to help finance budgeted investment plans. The Finance Ministry has said it would aim to sell between $700 million to $1 billion.
“It is likely during the month of October, between October-November,” Abdellatif Jouahri told reporters on the sidelines of an Arab central bankers’ conference in Kuwait.
“These are the problems that the advisory banks determine. What is the best time to come out, the volume it should aim for, and what do we need to pay to obtain what we want?”
Asked whether the bond sale could be pushed back to November, Jouahri said:
“I say simply that there could be a lag, because in the case of discussions with the advisory banks, evidently the test of the market, that could be pushed back a little bit but let’s say the end of October, that is what Morocco is aiming for.”
He said the bond was likely to have a “medium-term” maturity.
Morocco first announced plans for the bond in August, shortly after the award of a $6.2 billion precautionary line of liquidity from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Officials have rejected any links between the newfound flexibility offered by the IMF deal and the new bond issue.
It would be the first time that Morocco, a relative newcomer to the international sovereign bond market, gives serious consideration to a greenback-denominated issue.
While it is not convertible, Morocco’s dirham currency is pegged to a basket of currencies in which the euro accounts for 80 percent of the total weighting and the dollar for 20 percent. The breakdown reflects Morocco’s trade exchanges.
The $90-billion economy is heavily anchored to the euro zone whose troubles hit tourism revenues, migrant transfers and foreign investment this year.
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