Egypt's Debut Euro-Denominated Eurobonds, April 2018

Over the past 3 days, Finance Minister met 80 major European & American fixed income security investors.

Egypt's 1st euro-denominated Eurobonds claim unprecedented success. In integration to its Eurobond plan, Egypt raises euro-denominated Eurobonds worth 2 billion, evenly split into two tranches: eight-year notes with a yield of 4.75%, and twelve-year notes, with a yield of 5.625%.

Purchase demands are nearly four times higher than the value of the issued bonds, and exceed coverage percentage for all previous same issuances since the start of 2018.

Euro-denominated issuances have been covered with great prices; to be best prices offered ever for any previous issuances made by the Egyptian government.

A significant participation of more than 350 investors from 35 countries over the globe is recorded, confirming the growing of confidence in the Egyptian economy.

The Egyptian government, as represented by the Ministry of Finance, has succeeded in raising € 2 billion in Eurobond issuance , broken down into two equal tranches (8 - 12 year terms) with significant high returns.

No sooner had the announcement been made than considerable purchase requests were registered by a value exceeding 7.5 billion Euros; this is in spite of being the 1st euro-denominated issuance for Egypt. A delegation from the Ministry of Finance, headed by Minister Mr. Amr Al-Garhy, made a three-day promotional tour on April 3-6 to the UK, Germany, Italy and France. Delegates also included Mr. Ahmed Kouchouk, vice minister of finance for financial policies and institutional developments, and Mr. Khalid Abdel Rahman, minister of finance's assistant for capital Market operations. The delegation held intensive meetings with high-ranking European investors to demonstrate key economic and structural reforms recently implemented by the Egyptian government and the improved economic performance and growth rates in general.

The delegation met with 70 businessmen of Europe's largest fixed income security investors through conducting eight one-to-one meetings and other eight group meetings. In addition, the Egyptian tour included making several conference calls with a group of European investors and 10 major American investors specialized in investment in financial markets and who enjoy high financial solvencies.

Many investors expressed their appreciation and admiration of the developments and improvement experienced in the Egyptian economy in the last period.

Al-Garhy underlined the significant participation in Egypt's raised € 2 billion euro-denominated bonds, with purchase orders amounting to € 7.5 billion by a coverage rate of 3.8 times.

He added that more than 350 investors from 35 countries presented purchase demands, which reflects the growing confidence among international financial institutions in the Egyptian economy, especially after the recent comprehensive package of structural economic reforms. It is also a token of the international community's confidence in reform measures which are totally and continuously supported by the political leadership, he added.

Regarding the proceeds of the bonds, the minister noted that the Eurobonds proceeds will be directed to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to support foreign reserves, while the equivalent value in Egyptian pound will be directed to finance the general budget. He added that such Eurobonds help in varying financing tools and currency categories for the CBE, given that current yield prices in European markets are lesser than interest rates in the local market and American markets.

The banks arranging the debt offering included BNP Paribas, AlexBank – a member of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group – Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

The National Bank of Egypt (NBK) and Banque Misr will be acting as assistants of the aforementioned lead debt offering banks.