Another Decent Bond Auction for the DMO

The DMO held its monthly auction of FGN bonds on Monday (20 March ’23). It offered N360bn (USD780.1m) but raised N563.2bn (USD1.2bn) through re-openings of the 13.98% FGN FEB 2028, 12.50% FGN APR 2032, 16.25% FGN APR 2037, and 14.80% FGN APR 2049 FGN bonds.

The participation level (demand) at this auction declined by -22.6% to N808.4bn (USD1.7bn) compared with N991.9bn (USD2.1bn) recorded in February ’23. The bids for the 5, 9, 15, and 27-year benchmarks were allotted at the marginal rates of 14.00% (previously 13.90%), 14.75% (previously 14.90%), 15.20% (previously 15.90%), and 15.75% (previously 16.00%) respectively. Bid-to-cover stood at 1.4x

YTD the DMO has now raised NGN1.9trn at its bond auctions, exceeding its borrowing target (via FGN bonds) by 58.3% in Q1 ’23. It is clearly on track pro rata to meet the target for H1 2023.

The MPC/CBN raised the policy rate by 50bps to 18% at its latest meeting held in March. Further tightening is expected to offset the upward risk in price development and narrow the real interest rate gap. There was a slight uptick in the average FGN bond yield following the 50bps rate hike. We note that MPR – Inflation is currently at -3.9%.

The domestic institutions are still the core buyers of the bonds, which accounted for 61.5% of the assets under management of the PFAs at end-December ‘22. Some foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) outside the payments pipeline may be tempted back into the market by a little more retracement. More likely in our view, the domestic institutions will again make the running and the FPIs will generally stick with less complicated trades with similar (or better) returns elsewhere.

Looking ahead we expect a small boost to system liquidity due to an FGN bond maturity, NTB maturity, bond coupon payments and an OMO maturity in April and May. These maturities and coupon payments collectively amount to N1.45trn. A slight moderation in the avenge yield of fixed income instruments is likely.

In H2 2023 liquidity is expected to reduce while domestic borrowing increases, potentially resulting in further upticks in yields. However, the level of system liquidity largely impacted by items such as auctions, CRR debits/refunds, bond/NTB maturities and coupon payments would influence the movement in yields.

Over the next month, we see the mid-curve FGN bond yields around 13.7% – 14.9% and yields at the longer end of the curve between 13.5% – 15.8%.