Africa Business News

Gabon’s military coup sparked the steepest daily drop in its dollar bonds since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic just weeks after the country carried out continental Africa’s first debt-for-nature swap. The 2025 maturity fell the most, by as much as 14 cents, before recovering to trade down 9.5 cents on the dollar at 83.41 cents at 1302 GMT. The Head Of Macro Strategy at FIM Partners, Charlie Robertson, says that was still the biggest fall since the COVID-19 market rout of March 2020. Its two 2031 maturities were both down around seven cents. He says the immediate risk to bondholders is that sanctions are imposed that complicate things, potentially making payments to and from the country difficult.