Egypt: CBE offers $655mln worth of euro-denominated T-bills

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The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), acting on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, will offer €600m worth of euro-denominated Treasury bills on Monday. According to the CBE, the issuance will be for a year, maturing on 12 August 2025. The proceeds will be used to settle a previous auction that was issued on 15 August 2023, valued at €626.4m.

In the last similar auction held on 6 November 2023, the CBE received 28 bids from local and foreign investors amounting to €781.7m. Of these, 19 bids totaling €656.7m were accepted. The accepted yield ranged between 3.999% and 4%, although some institutions requested a yield as high as 5%, which the CBE declined.

The CBE first started offering euro-denominated Treasury bills on 28 August 2012, with the initial yield granted by the Ministry of Finance set at 3.25%.

Local banks and foreign institutions are permitted to subscribe to these euro-denominated Treasury bills with a minimum subscription amount of €100,000 and its multiples. The subscription process is similar to that for local currency Treasury bills, where each bank submits its bid to the CBE, indicating the amount and the interest rate it seeks. The CBE then reviews and accepts the appropriate bids.

Banks operating in the local market rely heavily on these Treasury bills to invest their euro liquidity in a secure government-backed instrument with a reasonable return. This is particularly significant given the limited alternative investment opportunities for euro liquidity, apart from the occasional syndicated loans or investments in global financial markets.