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Zambia’s Spat With Miners Hits Its Eurobonds

Zambia’s Spat With Miners Hits Its Eurobonds

(Bloomberg) -- Zambia’s Eurobond yields rose to 20% for the first time as the southern African nation struggles to shore up its finances and after the government threatened to nationalize foreign-owned copper mines.

The rate on Zambia’s $750 million of securities maturing in 2022 climbed a notch above 20% before recovering to trade at 19.99%, or a price of 65.7 cents on the dollar, as of 12:26 p.m. in London. The country’s Eurobond curve is inverted, a rarity and a signal its assets are in distressed territory. No other nation aside from Venezuela, which is in default, has dollar yields as high.

Zambia’s Spat With Miners Hits Its Eurobonds

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Wallace in Lagos at pwallace25@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Srinivasan Sivabalan

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