Cocobod pays up for US$1.3bn PXF

摘要

GHANA COCOA BOARD has signed a US$1.3bn pre-export syndicated loan facility to finance its 2020-2021 cocoa crop that includes a pricing premium due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Market uncertainty, a risk-off attitude among lenders, and the resulting lack of competition between banks that would normally be competing for the underwriting roles on the loan was reflected in the pricing of the facility, which pays 175bp over Libor. That is considerably higher than the 50bp margin paid for last year's US$1.3bn loan.