Antigua US$200M bond back on track

Black Immigrant Daily News

The Antigua & Barbuda government says “within a couple of weeks” it will have a new subscriber for a US$200 million bond it was forced to withdraw from the international market earlier this year. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP FOR NEWS UPDATES.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne also told Parliament that he had not sought to deceive the population when he had earlier announced that the bond had been oversubscribed.

“The fact that we had a subscriber for the full amount and that there is yet another one that will be subscribing for the full US$200 million would have suggested, Mr Speaker, that we would have had at least two entities that would have covered twice the amount of the bonds that were issued,” Browne said.

“Clearly, we did not lie to the people of Antigua & Barbuda. It was oversubscribed and what we are seeking to do here is to get the best deal,” he added.

Browne told legislators that the bond was initially withdrawn after the original subscriber, whom he did not name, had sought a higher interest rate.

“We had a subscriber who after the deal was concluded decided to seek to increase the bond interest rates from about six per cent as effective yield to in excess of nine per cent. Mr Speaker, my Cabinet is a very responsible Cabinet and we deemed it was too expensive to be borrowing US$200 million at approximately 10 per cent and, accordingly, we have withdrawn the bond.” The funds were to be used to construct a hotel at Morris Bay.

“In the next couple of weeks, we should have a new subscriber with a better interest rate,” he added.

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