DR Congo enlists Cameroon’s support in bond issue
Financia Capital, a financial firm founded by Cameroonian Serge Yanic Nana; Attijari Securities Central Africa, an asset management company created in Cameroon by the Moroccan banking group Attijariwafa; and the Cameroonian subsidiary of EDC Investment, investment arm of the Ecobank group; are currently arranging a $238 million bond on behalf of the State of Congo.
This public offering, with an interest rate of 6.5 per cent, and a maturity of 5 years, will be launched on BVMAC, the CEMAC member-States financial market located in Libreville, the Gabonese capital. This will be the very first fundraising operation launched by this country on the sub-regional capital market.
With more than 50 per cent of its public revenues usually coming from the sale of oil, Congo is facing important financial difficulties with the drop in the international prices for crude oil. Treasury tensions which this country is trying to reduce with this bond scheduled to be launched in December 2016.
The participation of Cameroonian investors in this operation is highly expected by the Congolese authorities. Indeed, as can be noticed with the last sale of shares by SIAT Gabon on the BVMAC, it is difficult to have a successful fundraising operation in the CEMAC zone without Cameroonian investors.
The country not only gathers on its own 40 per cent of the industry fabric in the CEMAC zone, but it is also home to 13 banking establishments and about thirty cash-ready insurance companies in search of profitable investment opportunities.
