(Adds investor comment, bond details)
By Cooper Inveen
ACCRA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Ghana has extended the
deadline to register for its domestic debt exchange programme
for a fourth time to Feb. 7 to allow for new agreed terms to be
finalised and finish discussions with other bondholders, the
finance ministry said on Tuesday.
The West African nation started this debt swap plan at the
beginning of December as part of a plan to redress a spiralling
economic crisis blighting the gold, cocoa and oil producer.
Days later, the International Monetary Fund reached a
staff-level agreement with Ghana for a $3 billion rescue package
that will only be approved with comprehensive debt
restructuring.
"The new terms of the exchange have been accepted," the
ministry said, referring to agreements reached with associations
representing banks, insurers and capital market operators last
week.
A revised, final exchange memorandum will be released by
Feb. 2, it said, and a new settlement date of Feb. 14 will be
confirmed in the new memorandum.
Ghana's government has struggled to convince bondholders
to register for the debt exchange programme, in part due to lack
of clarity over its terms and concerns about profitability. In
mid-January, Ghana extended the deadline to Jan. 31.
In the announcement of the latest extension, the finance
ministry said individual bondholders would be offered new bonds
with a maximum maturity of five years instead of 12 and
confirmed that they are free not to participate in the swap.
Those below the age of 59 are being offered a 10% coupon
rate, while retirees, including those retiring in 2023, have
been offered 15%.
Discussions with pension funds, which are getting a
different deal, are continuing, the ministry said.
Ghana also needs to negotiate the restructuring of external
debt, including $13 billion of international Eurobonds and $4
billion in bilateral loans, according to International Institute
of Finance data.
"As long as the domestic debt deal isn't agreed, it is hard
for the IMF to have a more solid set of numbers to plug into
their Debt Sustainability Analysis and for other creditors'
committees – official creditors, bondholders - to really get to
work," said Giulia Pellegrini, an emerging market debt portfolio
manager at Allianz Global Investors.
"This potentially ends up penalising Ghana - its
ability to put this debt default behind itself and re-approach
markets in the future," Pellegrini said.
(Reporting by Cooper Inveen;
Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London
Writing by Sofia Christensen and Rachel Savage;
Editing by James Macharia Chege and Grant McCool)
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