Egypt kicks off pan-Asian bond roadshow in South Korea

Egypt launched a pan-Asian roadshow to promote its international bonds in South Korea on Sunday, part of a bid to bring down rising yields on its debt, the finance ministry said.

The non-deal roadshow that starts in Seoul aims to open up new bond markets for Egypt, the statement said.

The government cancelled four consecutive local currency T-bond auctions last month after bankers and investors demanded high yields on the debt.

Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said last month Egypt was looking to sell around $5 billion in Eurobonds, possibly in the first quarter of 2019.

“The expansion of the investor base and increasing liquidity levels for Egyptian securities contribute to reducing the high yields required on government securities, thereby reducing the public debt burden,” the statement said.

Egypt aims to reach an average interest rate on government debt instruments in the current 2018-2019 budget of about 14.7 percent compared with 18.5 percent in fiscal year 2017-2018, which ended on June 30.

Egypt’s funding needs in the 2018-2019 budget are about 714.637 billion Egyptian pounds ($40.06 billion), of which 511.208 billion are in the form of domestic debt instruments and the rest are external financing from the issuance of bonds and an IMF loan. ($1 = 17.8400 Egyptian pounds)