Angola expects to have to pay an interest rate of 7.0% when it issues a second round of Eurobond in May, the country’s Finance Minister Archer Mangueira said, adding that the presentation sessions for investors will start on Monday in New York.

The minister told Portuguese news agency Lusa that the minimum amount of debt to be placed is US$2 billion, “that amount could be exceeded,” anticipating that the interest rates required by investors should be in line with those currently practiced in the debt issue that Angola launched in 2015.

“The expectation is that [the interest rate] will fall below that of the bonds issued in 2015, which are already being traded at less than 7.0% after being 9.5%,” said the Finance Minister.

Angola’s Annual Debt Plan for 2018 outlines that the country intends to raise 6.721 billion kwanzas (US$31 billion) in public debt in 2018, totalling US$67 billion of debt.

The document, prepared by the Ministry of Finance in mid-February, states that these needs will be shared by 4.762 trillion kwanzas (US$22.2 billion) in domestic debt and 1.959 trillion kwanzas (US$9.1 billion) in external debt in order to “meet the financing needs” of the 2018 Budget. (macauhub)