Firms in Kenya’s first Eurobond issue set to be named

The companies that will help Kenya plan and execute its first Eurobond will be disclosed next week.

Speaking on the sidelines of a joint conference by the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to review the country’s growth achievements, Treasury secretary Henry Rotich said the process of procuring the arrangers would be completed in a week’s time.

“We are finalising the process of selecting the arrangers for the bond. We should make an announcement on this issue next week,” he said.

Conclusion of the process will give way for the Treasury to prepare papers that will enable it launch the debt in international markets where it is seeking to raise up to $2 billion to finance infrastructure projects locally.

The targeted amount has been reviewed several times since the initially stated figure of $1 billion.

According to Mr Rotich, the structure of the bond will be made public once a prospectus to support the borrowing has been issued.

He did the exact amount of credit the government is seeking from the international markets, citing the need to “maintain calm” in the targeted financial markets.

“We will reveal the structure of the bond once we have launched a prospectus in Europe and American markets. We keep reviewing the credit figure because we respect the rules of the markets we are targeting,” Mr Rotich said.

Kenya’s economy has been growing steadily since 2008 when the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded the least by 1.6 per cent.
Last year, the economy grew by 4.6 per cent with a projected growth of 5.6 per cent in the current financial year underpinned by increased government spending in infrastructure, energy, agriculture and ICT projects.