In a press release received in Dakaractu, the Ministry of Finance and Budget reports a successful operation by Senegal on the international capital markets with the obtaining of 750 million dollars estimated at more than 451 billion FCFA.
According to the ministry’s services, it is within the framework of covering the financing needs of the operations of the finance law of the year 2024 that the State of Senegal has mandated JP Morgan London for the purposes of mobilizing, under conditions aligned with its debt management strategy, resources amounting to 500 million US dollars. To this end, on Monday June 3, 2024, bonds of the State of Senegal were launched, in private placement with investors on the international capital markets. These securities are issued in US dollars at a nominal interest rate of 7.75% per year, for a maturity of 7 years. In order to further optimize debt service, these securities were simultaneously converted into euros, at an average rate of 6.47%. The enthusiasm for these titles, noted after their launch, justified the issue, on Tuesday June 4, 2024, of an additional tranche of 250 million US dollars. The success of the transaction, established by the strong support of targeted investors, attests to their constant support for the public policy financing initiatives of the State of Senegal, as well as their renewed confidence in its signature quality.
Despite this significant financial operation, the coordinator of the Civil Forum, Birahime Seck, wanted to warn about the choice of the investment bank.
“The Ministry of Finance and Budget must educate us on the choice of JP Morgan London. The problem of transparency of intermediation remains. These results further show the failure of the domestic resource mobilization strategy which must be evaluated,” he indicated on the web. These questions are relevant to the issues raised by the investment bank. Indeed, in a recent 2023 public and private transparency report on responsible investment, JP Morgan is cited in the 2012 “London Whale” scandal where massive trading losses estimated at more than $6 billion were revealed. In 2020, Jp Morgan was fined $920 million for manipulating the precious metals and US Treasury markets. The fine highlighted ongoing compliance issues at the bank and raised questions about its commitment to ethical business practices. In 2013, the investment bank agreed to pay a record $13 billion fine to settle accusations that it misled investors about the quality of mortgage-backed securities. It also faced major lawsuits over its mortgage lending practices before the 2008 financial crisis.
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