Business
Jamaica to sell dollar bond to diaspora
(Reuters) – Jamaica is planning a dollar bond targeted at its diaspora community, the country’s investment minister said on Thursday.
“We think a diaspora bond is do-able,” Anthony Hylton, Jamaica’s industry, investment and commerce minister, told Reuters on the sidelines of a Jamaica investment forum.
“We are working with the World Bank in devising it.”
Hylton said Jamaica hoped to launch the bond in August, to coincide with the London Olympics, at which the Jamaican athletics team is expected to do well, and with Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of independence.
The bond, which could total up to US$1 billion but is likely to be smaller, would not increase Jamaica’s overall debts, already equivalent to 126 percent of GDP, Hylton said.
Instead, the government hopes to use proceeds from the sale, which Hylton said would be available in smaller denominations than a conventional Eurobond, to refinance more expensive debt. Jamaica has a 200 million euro bond maturing later this year.
“We know the Jamaican diaspora has substantial invest-able funds, close to US$5 billion. We are not looking for more debt, we are looking to make space,” he added.
Countries such as Lebanon have successfully sold bonds in the past to their citizens living overseas, who typically charge less than international investors to lend to their home states.
Then-World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, now Nigeria’s finance minister and a candidate to head the World Bank, has promoted diaspora bonds to channel the wealth of migrants into infrastructure projects in their home countries.
Nigeria has said it will sell such a bond this year and other countries including Greece have said they may seek to target their own diasporas.
Jamaica tapped an existing Eurobond last year to bring the bond’s total size to US$750 million, large enough to enter bond indices closely tracked by emerging market investors. The bond was launched at a yield of 8 percent and is currently trading at 7.87 percent.
After its economy grew last year for the first time since 2007, Jamaica is talking to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about a renewal of aid following the expiry of an existing facility.
The 27-month standby agreement worth US$1.27 billion is in force until May, although in effect it lapsed when the previous government failed to meet performance targets set by the Fund.
Hylton said the aim was to secure a similar package, rather than increase the level of IMF aid.
“We are not looking for additional funds, but an IMF agreement does provide a trigger for other multilateral partners to release quite a bit of funding.”
The IMF forecasts growth of 2.4 percent in Jamaica this year, following growth last year of 1.5 percent.