Holders of emerging market debt have had it good in the past 12 months. With yields in the developed world so low, fixed-income investors have rushed to buy bonds from other parts of the globe.
Yet even within the emerging market class, sub-Saharan African Eurobonds managed to stand out, returning close to 30% last year (compared to about 19% for emerging market Eurobonds overall). There was scarcely a deal that failed to perform well. Senegal’s only international bond rose 32% in 2012, while one from the Seychelles made gains of 29%. Côte d’Ivoire’s $2.3bn deal, which went into default in late 2010 but saw demand rise last year following the government announcing plans to pay off the arrears, returned a massive 91%, making it probably the best performing sovereign Eurobond in the world. And a debut $750m deal in September from Zambia, a copper exporter rated B+ by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, raised a $12bn orderbook.
