Cairo: Egypt aims to sell Eurobonds worth $3-4 billion in the 2018-2019 fiscal year which begins in July, deputy finance minister Ahmed Kouchouk told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television network on Sunday.
Egypt raised $4 billion (Dh14.7 billion) in a dollar-denominated Eurobond sale that closed late on Tuesday, the finance ministry said, in bonds issued in five, 10- and 30-year tenors.
The finance ministry is set to begin talks this month with European banks to issue euro-denominated Eurobonds expected to valued at €1-1.5 billion and sold next April, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy told Reuters on Wednesday.
Egypt in late 2016 agreed to a three-year $12 billion IMF loan programme tied to sweeping reforms that include tax hikes and subsidy cuts aimed at enticing back investors that fled after its violent popular uprising in 2011.
Egypt’s foreign debt rose to $80.8 billion in the quarter that ended in September.
The finance ministry said the latest Eurobond issuance would be used to boost central bank reserves, which stood at $38.209 billion at the end of January.
Reserves have steadily climbed since Egypt clinched the IMF loan and floated its pound currency in 2016, roughly halving it in value but drawing dollars back into a banking system that was grappling with an acute foreign currency shortage.
Egypt last year sold $7 billion in Eurobonds over two issuances, part of its return to international markets after turmoil following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
