Barclays Mauritius Begins Issue Of Rs 2 Bn Bond

by Lorys Charalambous, for LawAndTax-News.com, Cyprus

30 August 2005

Barclays Bank Mauritius has issued the first corporate bond in the Mauritius market with the disbursement last week of a Rs 500m first tranche forming part of a Rs 2 bn bond program.

Managing Director of Barclays, Mr. Kamal Taposeea, said: “This initiative heralds new opportunities in the development of our local financial market. It will have significant added advantage, both at domestic and international levels, and will play a catalytic role for more sophistication, proliferation and diversity of instruments in our capital markets”.

He further added that this bond is a testimony of the bank’s will to shift from conventional banking and to position itself as an established Arranger of Bonds, given the availability of the know-how in Mauritius, in Africa and in the United Kingdom. The bond comes at a time when professional market players, locally and abroad, look for enhanced return, diversification opportunities and quality investment. Mr. Taposeea believed that the appetite for this particular debt instrument by foreign investors will help to bring inflows of foreign currency to the Mauritius domestic market.

Last month Barclays Bank PLC announced the acquisition of 53.96% of all ordinary shares in South Africa's Absa Group Limited.

"Barclays", said Mr. Taposeea, "considers the emerging African economies as offering significant potential growth. In that context, Barclays Mauritius will be called upon to play a greater role as the integration with ABSA continues.

"Furthermore, this corporate issue will help in establishing a corporate yield curve which is essential for further development of the local financial market. Apart from increasing the depth and breadth of the local capital market, it will mark a new era in our local debt capital market."

At the launch of the bond, Mr. R. Basant Roi, Governor of the Bank of Mauritius, congratulated the bank, saying that the issue of the bond would be a crucial step in creating a local debt market: "We need to create a critical mass of trading in debt instruments without which an MUR Yield Curve (Rupee yield curve) for Mauritius would not be possible. Banks and brokers need to give the best of themselves in creating the critical mass of trade."

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