Guarantee for Privately Placed Samurai Bonds Issued　by the Central Bank of Tunisia
JBIC's First Guarantee for Samurai Bonds Issued by African Countries

• Region: Africa
• Others
• Guarantees

1. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC; Governor: Hiroshi Okuda) signed today a set of agreements to provide a guarantee for yen-denominated foreign bonds issued by the Central Bank of Tunisia in the Japanese bond market (Samurai bonds)^*1. This is a privately placed issue amounting to 25 billion yen. JBIC's guarantee will cover the principal and part of the interest. The joint lead arrangers are Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd., and Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. with Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. participating as the bond administrator.
    
2. This is the first guarantee, provided under JBIC's Guarantee and Acquisition toward Tokyo market Enhancement (GATE) facility^*2, for issue of Samurai bonds by the government and governmental agencies of African countries. Furthermore, this is a part of the Deauville Partnership^*3 which is designed to support countries in the Middle East and North Africa. As part of the efforts to implement its policy of maintaining and improving the international competitiveness of Japanese capital market, JBIC supports Samurai bond issues^*4 by the Central Bank of Tunisia in the Tokyo bond market with guarantee provision for the purpose of supporting the Government of Tunisia's diversification of its funding sources, at the same time, it expects to expand and diversify the range of investment opportunities available to Japanese investors and to activate the Samurai bond market.
    
3. The annual real economic growth rate in 2012 in Tunisia is anticipated to be 3.5% and the country has been making up the transition to democracy. For Japanese companies, Tunisia is expected to become increasingly more attractive as an export market of machinery and equipment and as an investment destination. This guarantee provision is expected to strengthen bilateral relations and contribute to more vigorous Japanese business activities in a wide range of areas.
    
4. JBIC will continue to support the issuance of Samurai bonds by foreign governments or government agencies in the Tokyo bond market under the GATE facility.

Note

1. *1 Samurai bonds are yen-denominated bonds issued by a foreign government or company in the Tokyo bond market.
2. *2 See Press Release on April 15, 2010.
3. *3 The “Deauville Partnership” is the framework agreed to support historical changes of Middle East and North African nations at the G8 Deauville Summit in May 2011.
4. *4 This guarantee is based on the framework announced by the Japanese government that pledged JBIC would provide financial support to Africa in the total amount of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars over the next five years at the 4^th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) in May 2008.