The short version
Gabon, formally the Gabonese Republic, has three live bonds in our set. All three are borrowings in US dollars, all three pay a fixed rate of interest that never changes, and all three are amortising — meaning the amount borrowed is repaid in slices on a schedule rather than in one lump sum at the end. The opposite arrangement, one single repayment on the maturity date, is called a bullet, and it is what most people picture when they think of a bond.
Because these are amortising, the "maturity" date on each line is only the date of the last instalment. Real repayment starts earlier — in 2028 on the shortest bond and in 2029 on the other two. As of today none of the three has paid down any principal at all, so each one is still outstanding in full relative to whatever amount it currently carries.
The other thing that trips people up is size. Two of the three lines show an outstanding amount well below the amount originally issued. That is not a default or a missed payment. It is the result of Gabon's 2023 debt-for-nature swap, explained below.
What a debt-for-nature swap is, and what it did here
In a debt-for-nature swap, a country arranges new financing on better terms and uses the money to buy back some of its existing bonds from the investors who hold them, in exchange for committing to spend an agreed amount on conservation. The bonds that are bought back are cancelled. The country ends up owing less on those particular lines, and the money it saves is directed towards the environmental commitment.
Gabon did this in 2023, in what our tracker records as the world's largest such swap at the time. It was run as a tender — an offer to existing holders to sell their bonds back — and the result changed the size of two lines. The 6.625% due 2031 went from US$1,000m issued to US$894.682m outstanding. The 7.0% due 2031 went from US$800m issued to US$500m outstanding. The third bond, the 9.5% due 2029, was sold after the swap and is unaffected by it.
Both numbers matter, which is why the bond blocks below give the issued amount and the outstanding amount separately. The issued amount tells you how big the bond once was; the outstanding amount is what Gabon still has to repay.
The three live bonds
All three are in US dollars, pay interest twice a year, and use a day count convention of 30E/360 — a standard market rule for working out how much interest has built up between payment dates, which treats every month as 30 days and every year as 360.
6.625% due 6 February 2031
The larger of the two 2031 lines, and the one whose terms our tracker has most fully confirmed from public listing documents. It was cut back by the 2023 debt-for-nature swap.
Principal is repaid in three instalments on the February payment dates of 2029, 2030 and 2031. No principal has been repaid yet.
- Currency
- US dollars confirmed
- Coupon
- 6.625%, fixed for the life of the bond confirmed
- Final maturity
- 6 February 2031 confirmed
- Amount issued
- US$1,000m confirmed
- Amount outstanding
- US$894.682m after the 2023 debt-for-nature tender confirmed
- Repayment
- 3 instalments of roughly one third each, on 6 February 2029, 2030 and 2031 inferredThe equal-thirds split is inferred, not taken from a published schedule; our tracker flags it for checking against the prospectus inferred
- Interest dates
- 6 February and 6 August confirmed
- Day count
- 30E/360 confirmed
- 144A twin
- US362420AD35, recorded but not yet confirmed inferred
7.0% due 24 November 2031
The smaller 2031 line, and the one most reduced by the 2023 swap in proportional terms: it lost more than a third of its original size.
Its coupon rate, maturity date and outstanding amount are confirmed from public records. The interest dates and the shape of the repayment schedule are inferred, as set out below.
- Currency
- US dollars confirmed
- Coupon
- 7.0%, fixed for the life of the bond confirmed
- Final maturity
- 24 November 2031 confirmed
- Amount issued
- US$800m confirmed
- Amount outstanding
- US$500m after the 2023 debt-for-nature tender confirmed
- Repayment
- 3 instalments of roughly one third each, on 24 November 2029, 2030 and 2031 inferredBoth the equal-thirds split and the instalment dates are inferred rather than confirmed inferred
- Interest dates
- 24 May and 24 November inferred
- Day count
- 30E/360 confirmed
- 144A twin
- US362420AE18, recorded but not yet confirmed inferred
9.5% due 13 February 2029
The newest and shortest of the three. Our tracker records it as a private placement done in February 2025 — that is, a bond sold directly to a limited set of investors rather than offered through a public marketing process.
It repays in two instalments rather than three, starting in 2028. It was issued after the 2023 swap, so the swap did not touch it.
- Currency
- US dollars confirmed
- Coupon
- 9.5%, fixed for the life of the bond confirmed
- Final maturity
- 13 February 2029 confirmed
- Amount outstanding
- US$570m confirmed
- Repayment
- Roughly half in 2028 and half in 2029 inferredThe 50/50 split and the instalment dates are inferred rather than confirmed inferred
- Interest dates
- 13 February and 13 August inferred
- Day count
- 30E/360 confirmed
Two Gabonese instruments we deliberately leave off this page
Our tracker records two further instruments that were considered and held back rather than added to the priced set. The first is the 6.097% "Blue Bond" due 2038, the structured, DFC-insured instrument created as part of the debt-for-nature arrangement. Because it carries an insurance wrapper and a structure rather than being a plain sovereign bond, our tracker treats it as outside the set — the same policy it applies to the Republic of Congo 6% 2029 step-up and to Egypt's sukuk, Samurai and Panda lines.
The second is a US$1.5bn deal from June 2026, which our tracker records as unsettled at the time the Gabon page was built. It is to be added once its terms and ISIN settle publicly. We would rather show the gap than publish terms that are not yet fixed.
What we are not sure about
Our tracker keeps its own list of things still to confirm against the original offering documents. Everything on that list is repeated here rather than quietly smoothed over.
How each bond splits into instalments is inferred, not published
For all three bonds, the exact division of principal between instalments is an assumption rather than a figure we have read in a document. We assume equal thirds on the two 2031 lines and a 50/50 split on the 2029, and our tracker flags all three for checking against the prospectuses and the pricing supplement.
The total amount repaid is not in doubt — only how it is carved up between the payment dates. Anything on this page tagged as inferred sits in that category.
Some payment dates are inferred too
The coupon and instalment dates for the 7.0% due 2031 and the 9.5% due 2029 are inferred rather than confirmed, and our tracker lists them for checking against the offering memoranda. The dates on the 6.625% due 2031 are confirmed.
The 144A identifiers are not yet confirmed
Large dollar bonds are often sold in two parallel tranches with separate identification codes — a Reg S tranche aimed at investors outside the United States, and a 144A tranche for certain US institutions. The two tranches are the same borrowing, but each has its own ISIN.
Only the Reg S ISINs shown above were found in public records. Our tracker records US362420AD35 for the 6.625% and US362420AE18 for the 7.0% as the corresponding 144A codes, and notes that XS2295786826 is likely to be another tranche of the 7.0%. All of these remain to be confirmed.
The two held instruments are due a fresh look
Our tracker carries an open action to revisit both the Blue Bond due 2038 and the June 2026 US$1.5bn deal. Either could move onto this page later; neither is on it now.
Where every figure here comes from
Every term on this page traces to a public record. Our tracker names the following sources and gives no web addresses for them, so we cite them in words rather than linking.
| What it tells us | Source |
|---|---|
| The ISINs, coupon rates, maturity dates and amounts | Irish Stock Exchange listings and prospectus listings |
| The reduced outstanding amounts on the two 2031 bonds after the debt-for-nature swap | The 2023 debt-for-nature tender result announcement, as published on Investegate |
| The February 2025 private placement that created the 9.5% due 2029 | Coverage in GlobalCapital and IFR |
| The instalment splits and the inferred payment dates | Not from a document — these are our own assumptions, flagged as inferred above and still to be checked against the prospectuses, the pricing supplement and the offering memoranda |
How we work out the price
Nothing on this page is a price. Terms change rarely — a coupon, a maturity date and a repayment schedule are fixed when the bond is sold — so a reference page can state them once and stand. Prices change all day, so they live on the price page and only there. If a figure here ever disagrees with one there, this page is the one to distrust, and we would like to hear about it.
What the two have to do with each other is this. On a normal trading day a closing quote for these bonds reaches us from the market, and that anchors what the price page shows. Between closes the price moves with the things that move this market: US Treasury yields, how much extra return investors demand for African sovereign risk, market volatility and, for commodity exporters, commodity prices. Where a bond repays in instalments rather than in one go, the calculation also has to know how much of it is left on any given day — which is what the repayment schedules above are for. Get a schedule wrong and the published price is wrong.
Information only. This page is general educational material about how this market works. Nothing here is investment, financial, legal or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Prices shown elsewhere on this site are indicative and are not an offer to trade.
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