LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola mistakenly transferred a bond coupon payment to the wrong account last month, the Finance Ministry told Reuters on Thursday, and is working to correct the situation so that bondholders can receive the funds due.
Some market participants had raised concerns when a coupon payment for a 2019-dated Eurobond Angola issued via special purpose vehicle Northern Lights III BV failed to come through to holders in mid-February.
Although there is a 30-day grace period for payments on the bond, any delay could disadvantage Angola as it looks to come to market to sell Eurobonds this year.
“There is no delay or default,” a spokesperson for the finance ministry said by email.
“The value was paid ahead of time, but due to some lapse there was an error in the correspondence and the total was transferred to the wrong account.
“It is being corrected so that the right account at Deutsche Bank is credited,” the spokesperson added.
The bond is currently trading at 102.1 cents in the dollar, down around 0.7 cents since the start of the year, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Earlier in February, Angola said it had appointed three international banks to lead a $2 billion Eurobond issue.
Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer, additional reporting by Mfuneko Toyana in Johannesburg; Editing by Catherine Evans
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