Nation drops eurobond plans

IVORY Coast abandoned plans to offer a eurobond this year and was opting to raise debt in west Africa’s regional market as the stronger dollar made selling offshore finance too expensive. The country was planning to issue up to 550billion CFA francs (R13bn) on the local market before the end of the year, Finance Minister Adama Kone said. Ivory Coast issued $750million (R11bn) of dollar-denominated debt in 2014 and another $1bn last year. “Our last eurobond was just before the dollar started rising. Today, it is very expensive,” Kone said. “We will go offshore if we later notice that the regional market isn’t sufficiently liquid.” Ivory Coast wanted to avoid debt rising beyond the current 41 percent of gross domestic product – another reason why it would not sell offshore bonds, Kone said. – Bloomberg