Mar 2012 Financial News

Trinidad & Tobago to Sell Up to $500 Million in Global Bonds

Mar 19, 2012

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Trinidad & Tobago is planning its first global bond sale since 2007 as the Caribbean nation's economy is poised to expand for the first time in three years, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said.

Trinidad & Tobago is seeking to sell as much as $500 million in bonds abroad by the end of September, Dookeran said in an interview in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he is attending the annual meetings of the Inter-American Development Bank. The bonds would likely mature in 10 years and be used to help fund spending in the 2013 fiscal year, he said.

"This would be financing for the capital side of the next fiscal year," Dookeran said.

Trinidad's 9.75 percent dollar bonds maturing in 2020 yield 3.76 percent, down from 4.78 percent a year ago. The 2027 bonds yield 5.07 percent.

The natural gas-rich island nation, located off the northeastern coast of Venezuela, has an investment-grade "A" rating from Standard & Poor's, putting it in the same category as South Korea and Spain. The nation's economy will probably expand 1.7 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said in a Feb. 10 statement.

Dookeran said the country is working to get a regional stock exchange, which could include Guyana, Suriname and Jamaica, operating within a year. The government may sell stakes in some energy companies and banks to help kick-start the bourse's operation, he said.


Source:
By Bill Faries
Bloomberg

--With assistance from Nathan Crooks in Caracas. Editors: Glenn J. Kalinoski, Richard Richtmyer

To contact the reporter on this story:
Bill Faries in Montevideo at +54-11-4321-7736 or wfaries@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
David Papadopoulos at +1-212-617-5105 or papadopoulos@bloomberg.net; Joshua Goodman at +55-21-2125-2535 or jgoodman19@bloomberg.net