FirstRand

16 Mar

Ghana’s Move To Restructure Cedi, Overseas Debt Weighing On Banks From Africa To The UK

wontumionlineBusinessAbsa Group, Absa Group Ltd., and Nedbank Group, FirstRand, Standard Bank

Four of Africa’s biggest lenders — Standard Bank Group Ltd., FirstRand Ltd., Absa Group Ltd., and Nedbank Group Ltd. — collectively set aside $267 million to account for the losses, impairing as much as 57% of local and onshore dollar denominated debt holdings. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Plc set aside $160 million. A rare move to restructure local debt — bondholders exchanged 87.8 billion cedis ($7.1 billion) of notes that paid an average of 19%, with bonds returning as little as 8.35% — have resulted in losses for financial institutions. Ghana is restructuring most of its public debt, estimated at 576…

02 Mar

Firstrand Writes-Off 57% Of Ghana Bonds Value Amid Debt Restructuring

wontumionlineBusinessdebt restructuring, FirstRand, Ghana bonds

FirstRand Limited, Africa’s biggest bank by market capitalization, has written off more than half the value of its holdings of Ghanaian bonds as the country grapples with a restructuring of its sovereign debt. The South African lender disclosed in a statement on Thursday, March 2, 2023. The bank said it had impaired $27.3 million to cover potential losses from Ghana’s debt revamp and reduced income from associates. The write-down includes domestic and foreign-currency bonds held as of December. “We’ve marked down both the local-currency and Eurobonds, and we’ve taken a haircut at 57% of face value,” Chief Executive Officer Alan…