NAIROBI, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Kenya said on Thursday it has borrowed 210 billion shillings (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) in new Eurobond that will be repaid in two tranches of seven-year and 12-year tenors, in an issue that was oversubscribed 4.5 times.
Henry Rotich, Treasury cabinet secretary said the bond has been priced at 7 percent for the 7-year issue and 8 percent for the 12-year trench, below the initial interests of 7.5 and 8.5 percent respectively.
Rotich said the announcement of Kenya issuance triggered an overwhelming response from investors that amounted to an order book of 9.5 billion dollars, an oversubscription of 4.5 times.
"This was distributed as follows - 4.0 billion dollars in the 7-year tenor and 5.5 billion dollars in the 12-year tenor. This overwhelming interest in Kenya's bond issue confirms the strong investor confidence in Kenya's economic policy management and prospects going forward," he said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
Rotich said the proceeds from the issuance will be used to finance some of the development infrastructure projects, budgetary expenditure and to refinance part or all of the obligations outstanding under the 750 million dollars (2014 Eurobond) due on June 24 and part of the other debt obligations.
This is the third time Kenya has been in the international debt capital markets, the first being in June 2014, when Nairobi launched the debut bond of 2.0 billion dollars and tapped for a further 750 million dollars, while the second was in February 2018 when a dual-tranche of 2.0 billion dollars was issued.
