Imbert: Trinidad and Tobago raised US$750m on international capital market

MINISTER of Finance Colm Imbert says Trinidad and Tobago successfully raised US$750 million on the international capital market on June 17 “without difficulty.”

Imbert answered questions via a virtual roadshow to international financial investors on June 17. 

In a release, he said the roadshow involved intense scrutiny and questions about the country’s credit rating, its financial situation, diversification, revenue and expenditure, prospects for oil and gas production, foreign exchange inflows and interventions, management of the exchange rate, foreign reserves, the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund, environmental, social and governance issues, human development, climate change, political stability, democracy, procurement, accountability and the rule of law, among many other issues.

Imbert said the roadshow went well as he was able to “successfully answer the questions asked, to the satisfaction of international investors.

“A Government of TT (GORTT) bond with a prospective offer size of US$750 million was thus launched with an initial rate in the high six per cent range on the Bloomberg Electronic Platform at around 8.45 am.

“By 11.15 am, when the decision was taken to close the Book on the Bond, we had received offers totalling US$2.1 billion, an oversubscription of 280 per cent.”

The release said the ministry achieved the success with the assistance of sole lead manager/book runner for this international bond JP Morgan in just two and a half hours.

“After assessing the quality of the offers and allocating the bonds to various investors, the ten-year TT Bond was finalised in the amount of US$750 million (the target amount) at an interest rate of 6.4 per cent (the target yield), which is just about two per cent above today’s opening rate of ten-year US Treasury Bills.

“It is noteworthy that the interest rate of 6.4 per cent over ten years achieved by the Ministry of Finance today is a much better rate than could possibly be achieved by most countries in Latin America and all of Caricom.”

Imbert said Colombia has a spread of 6.5 per cent over US treasuries, meaning  it would have to borrow at 10.8 per cent if it approached the international market. 

“The excellent performance of our US$750 million international bond offering today is confirmation of the confidence that the international financial community has in the Ministry of Finance and the government of TT.”

Imbert thanked and congratulated the Debt Management Division at the ministry and JP Morgan for the work they did on the international bond, which he said was planned and executed in a month.