The Atlantic-islands state plans to sell $200 million of bonds, partly to pay existing debt, according to a faxed statement from Citigroup Inc., which is managing the sale. The bonds will be sold Thursday or earlier, the statement from Citigroup’s London office said.
The Bahamas is taking advantage of “historically low interest rates” helping to refinance a $125 million short-term loan, which will bring “significant savings,” Finance Minister James Smith said in the statement.
The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds hit a 45-year low of 3.07 percent on June 16.
The Bahamas has a foreign-debt rating of A3 from Moody’s Investors Service, an investment grade rating six levels from the top grade and level with that of South Korea and China.
The government sold $25 million of 10-year bonds in 1997. The Citigroup statement didn’t specify the maturity of the bonds planned this week.
The Bahamas, which is comprised of islands east of Florida and Cuba with 300,000 inhabitants, earns most of its revenue from tourism.
Bloomberg
