Investors operating on the financial market of the West African Monetary Union (WAMU) have strongly tendered for the auction issue of assimilable treasury bonds (BAT) of maturity 28 days called Covid-19 Social Bonds with a coverage rate of the amount put up for auction of 563.33%, announced the WAMU-Securities Agency organizing the operation.

While the State of Côte d'Ivoire, through its public treasury, requested only 110 billion FCFA, the WAMU-Securities Agency listed at the end of the auction operation 619.660 billion FCFA of global bids. The largest amounts come from Côte d'Ivoire (209 billion), Burkina Faso (105 billion) and Mali (105 billion).

But, for reasons of cost, the issuer only retained the amount put up for auction and rejected the remaining 509.660 billion FCFA, i.e. an absorption rate of 17.75%. The largest amounts retained come from Mali (45 billion), Côte d'Ivoire (28 billion) and Togo (27 billion).

The weighted average return was 2.07%. As for the weighted average rate, it stood at 2.06% against 2.14% for the marginal rate. This issuance of COVID-19 Bonds allows the Ivorian authorities to mobilize the savings of natural and legal persons in order to cover the cash flow gaps created by the fight against the pandemic and its consequences.

The issuer has undertaken to repay the principal on the first working day following the maturity date of 4 January 2021. As for interest, it is payable in advance and deducted from the nominal value of the vouchers on the basis of a rate less than or equal to 3%.