International holders of Ghana’s Eurobonds have constituted bondholder creditor committee in response to Ghana’s announcement of suspending certain categories of external debts pending an orderly restructuring of the affected obligations.
It includes Eurobonds, commercial loans and most bilateral debts.
The suspension is an interim emergency measure pending future agreements with all relevant creditors.
According to a statement issued by the Finance Ministry, the suspension would not include the payments of multilateral debts, and new debts, whether multilateral or otherwise contracted after December 19, 2022, or debts related to certain short-term trade facilities.
The statement explained that the government was evaluating certain specific debts related to projects with the highest socio-economic impact for Ghana which may have to be excluded.
Ghana’s Eurobonds Committee is representative of a diverse group of institutional investors, including mutual funds, asset managers, insurance firms, hedge funds, and family offices.
Steering Members of the committee include the following holders (acting either directly or for and on behalf of the funds or the accounts they manage): Abrdn, Amundi (UK) Limited, BlackRock, Greylock Capital Management, and Ninety One.
The committee has appointed Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe LLP as legal advisors and Rothschild and Co as financial advisor.
The Committee is focused on the orderly and comprehensive resolution of Ghana’s debt challenges, recognising that such resolution would require fair burden-sharing and collaboration among the Ghanaian authorities, private creditors (both domestic and international) and official sector creditors.
According to the statement, the committee welcomed Ghana’s ongoing engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the recent announcement of the Staff Level Agreement.
The Committee noted that a process of good faith negotiation would avoid unilateral actions and would require, inter alia, the timely exchange of detailed economic and financial information among the committee, the Ghanaian authorities and the IMF, and would need to be anchored in reasonably feasible economic adjustment by the Ghanaian authorities.
In this regard, the Committee endorsed the Institute of International Finance’s Principles for Stable Capital Flows and Fair Debt Restructuring, which provides meaningful guidance for successful sovereign debt restructurings.
The committee stands ready for a swift engagement on that basis.
The committee aims at securing an outcome that is both equitable to creditors and responsive to the economic and social challenges facing Ghana.
BY TIMES REPORTER
