Morocco mandates banks for its Euro bond

Morocco has mandated Barclays, BNP Paribas, JPMorgan, Natixis to hold meetings with investors for its upcoming Euro bond, Bloomberg reported.

The bond will help Morocco pay back 1 billion euro bond that will reach maturity next month.

Central bank governor Abdelatif Jouahri said Morocco will issue the bond this year in euro without giving further details. He added that Morocco will sell another bond next year.

Morocco should at all costs maintain its investment grade given by credit rating agencies to have better access to the bond market.

The bonds would offset a drop in foreign currency inflow from tourism, exports and foreign direct investment and would help bolster Morocco’s foreign exchange reserves seen by the bank at 294.7 billion dirhams ($32 bln) and 289 billion dirhams in 2020 and 2021 respectively, enough to cover a little more than 6 months of imports.