Ivory Coast to issue debt worth 140 bln CFA francs by end November

Ivory Coast plans to issue 140 billion CFA francs worth of debt by end-November to finance domestic debt repayments and infrastructure projects, the head of the West African nation's treasury said on Monday. The issuance will be comprised of 50 billion CFA francs worth of treasury bills to be sold this month and a 90 billion CFA franc five-year bond with a 6.25 percent coupon next month. The bond will be marketed to investors across West Africa's CFA franc currency zone in units of 10,000 CFA francs via the Abidjan-based West African bourse. "We want to mobilize funds for the state's commitments, notably large public works projects and payment of domestic debt," treasury director Adama Kone told Reuters. Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer and French-speaking West Africa's largest economy, is recovering from a decade-long political crisis that ended in a brief 2011 civil war. The government planned to raise about $1.2 billion through various debt instruments in 2013, mainly to revamp long-neglected infrastructure.