Overseas Egypt T-bill holdings drop for first time since float

Foreign holdings of Egyptian Treasury bills fell for the first time since the country floated the pound a year ago as maturing notes exceeded new purchases, suggesting demand for high-yielding Egyptian debt has peaked. Overseas investors held 330.9 billion pounds ($18.8 billion) worth of T-bills as of Nov. 7 versus 333.6 billion pounds a week earlier, Samy Khallaf, head of the Finance Ministry’s public debt division, said by phone. The flow of new money and the appetite to renew maturing notes maybe waning due to seasonal factors, he said.

“We’re still seeing purchases from foreign investors, but maturities this quarter are larger than the previous one,” Khallaf added. “We’re also entering the holiday season so it is normal to see lower activity from foreign funds.”

The slowdown suggests that some investors have allocated all they can to Egypt. The north African nation saw more than $18 billion land in its debt market since authorities removed most currency restrictions and cut subsidies, clinching a $12 billion loan deal from the International Monetary Fund in Nov. 2016.