Based on the debt issuance calendar for the second quarter, government will today open the book-build – after releasing an initial pricing guidance – for a three-year treasury bond issuance through the Ghana Stock Exchange.

Per the second quarter debt issuance calendar, an amount of GHc 800 million is expected to be issued once through three year bonds, and this is the issuance scheduled to take place this week.

According to an announcement made by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Friday, May 17, 2019, the bond will mature in 2022.

The bonds to be issued each have a face value of GHc 1, with a minimum subscription of GHc 50,000 and multiples of GHc 1,000 thereafter. The offer is open to both local and foreign investors.

The three-year bonds will be issued through Barclays Bank, Databank, Stanbic Bank, Fidelity Bank and IC Securities acting as book runners for government.

Books are expected to be closed midday on Thursday, with the final pricing and allocation determined.

Successful bids will be cleared at a single clearing level. However in the event of oversubscription, there will be a discretionary allocation at the single clearing level.

The government aims to build benchmark bonds through the issuance of the different instruments, including three-year bonds which will be issued once this month through the book-building method.

In the second quarter of 2019, government plans on raising a total GHc 12,100 million from the domestic market, representing a 19.2 percent increase over the amount targeted in the first quarter of GHc 11,250 million.

Of the total gross amount, GHc 11,533.94 million is to rollover maturities while the remaining GHc 566.06 million is fresh issuance to meet government’s financing requirements.