(Ecofin Agency) - Tunisia will issue a Eurobond that amounts to €750M-€1 billion in the second half of April 2016, Reuters reports on March 14, citing a government official.
Procedure for the issuance, which includes examining potential demand, will be initiated by the end of March, the same source revealed.
“We will go on the international market at the end of March and the issuance itself will happen in the second half of April. We aim to raise between €750 million and €1 million,” said the official.
Last month, another government official said funds raised through the new Eurobond will be used to plug budget deficit.
With this Eurobond, Tunisia will be going on the international debt market for the fifth time since Ben Ali’s fall in January 2011. It issued a Samurai bond on Japan’s market with a guarantee from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, two other U.S. guaranteed bonds in 2014 and a non-guaranteed Eurobond from another country in January 2015. The order book of the latter, whose rate was 5.875%, exceeded $4 billion, for $500 million set.
Five years after the fall of Ben Ali, subsequent to a popular uprising, Tunisia is struggling to restart its economy currently crippled by political issues, unceasing social movements and repeated terrorist attacks.
The Northern African nation is currently in negotiations (advanced) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding a new aid plan which amounts to $2.8 billion.
