The Managing Director of Stanbic Bank, and President of the Ghana Bankers Association, Alhassan Andani has lashed out at critics of the 2.25 billion dollar bond issued by government some weeks back.
The Minority group in parliament, led by a former Deputy Finance Minister, Mr. Cassiel Ato Forson alleged that the issuance was done in secrecy, denying other investors an opportunity to participate in the bond.
The Minority further alleged that the transaction was “cooked” to favor a particular investor, Franklin Templeton, while the transaction did not receive parliamentary approval.
But responding to the issue in an interview with Citi Business News, Mr. Andani described the accusations as unhealthy and has the potential to hurt Ghana’s reputation on the international capital market.
“It’s absolutely unhealthy. My caution is that when a nation decides to play on the international capital market we have to know that the participants and the people we go to for resources on these international markets are very monstrous companies.
They are huge companies and have wide international reputations and therefore we have to be extremely careful if we are making any comments that is going to impugn any wronging, to especially the people we go to raise capital from,” he warned.
“ It’s about country reputation , so those of us who report on those transactions lets make sure we are well informed otherwise if we just touch these people, they will give anything up for their reputation.
Whether Templeton or any other global investor. They will give anything up for their reputation, and therefore we should be very careful the kind of commentary that we are running around,” he added.
Pointing to several bonds issued on the international debt market, Mr. Andani maintained that the major players will always be there when Ghana hits the market to mobilize funds.
“This will not be the first time or the last time we are going into the international debt capital market. We are not just hurting Templeton but we are probably passing on a message to other serious players, which I don’t want to say, suffice to say let’s be careful,” he strssed.
He rebutted claims that Stanbic Bank is part of the Book runners hence the defense, pointing out that there are international best practices which guide the issuance of such bonds, which Templeton did not flout.
“It is in the interest of the country to treat our partners in the international debt capital market with a lot of respect and a lot of professionalism. They don’t play around with their reputation.
They take years and years and great investment to build that reputation so if you want to say something about them be sure that you must. I can tell you confidently from where I sit that the must to criticize is not correct”, he warned.
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