Egypt begins marketing 10-year US dollar bond at 6.25% yield area

The Arab Republic of Egypt has begun marketing a US dollar benchmark-sized 10-year bond at a yield of 6.25% area, according to lead managers.

The deal is expected to price on Thursday. BNP Paribas, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Natixis are running the 144A/Reg S transaction.

Egypt is rated B3 by Moody's, B- by Standard & Poor's and B by Fitch.

The note is expected to be rated at the same levels by both Standard & Poor's and Fitch.

This will be Egypt's first international debt sale since the Arab Spring uprisings and the toppling of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

The sovereign's last deal was a US$1.5bn bond raised in 2010 through two tranches.

The US$1bn 2020 portion of that bond was trading at a yield of 4.43% on Thursday morning, while the US$500m 2040 bond was yielding 6.79%, according to Tradeweb.