Lebanon will invite eight firms to bid to be its financial adviser as it studies all options on its sovereign debt, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, as the heavily indebted state battles a financial crisis.
The invitation for bids does not mean the country has decided to restructure its debt “but it means Lebanon is studying all options and subsequent repercussions”, the source told Reuters.
It identified the firms as Moelis & Company, Rothschild & Co, Guggenheim Partners, Citibank, Lazard, JP Morgan, PJT Partners and Houlihan Lokey.
The government is under growing pressure to decide on how to deal with fast-approaching debt payments, including a $1.2 billion Eurobond due on March 9.
A team of IMF experts will visit Lebanon from Feb. 20-23 to meet with authorities on economic challenges and provide broad technical advice “on policies to deal with the macroeconomic challenges facing the economy”, International Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice said on Tuesday.
He said Lebanon had not requested financial assistance from the IMF. He gave no further details about the trip.
Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri sees debt restructuring as the best solution for the country’s looming Eurobond maturities, an MP from his Amal party said on Wednesday.
Berri’s comments on Monday were the first by a top-level leader publicly urging restructuring, one the eve of talks between a team of IMF experts and Lebanese authorities.
Lebanese banks holding the bulk of the sovereign debt have piled pressure on the state to pay the March Eurobond on time.
“When it comes to the Eurobond maturities, he sees restructuring the debt as the ideal solution,” lawmaker Ali Bazzi said after a weekly meeting of Berri’s Shi’ite Amal party, an ally of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese central bank’s investigation unit reiterated that it was probing transfers abroad after Oct. 17.
In a statement, the central bank's investigation commission said it asked banks on Feb. 6 for information about "the size of the amounts, the number of accounts and the operations that were transferred abroad".
"This matter is being followed up by the investigation unit," it said.
Lebanese prosecutors had asked the commission on Jan. 2 to contact the Swiss authorities to find out the size of sums transferred there since Oct. 17 and whether the source of the funds was suspicious.
Based on this, the commission had also asked all banks in Lebanon to review accounts of political figures or public-sector officials who had made transfers out of Lebanon from Oct. 17 until the end of 2019.
Lebanese banks have been limiting access to foreign currency and controlling transfers abroad since a wave of anti-government protests erupted in October and a long-brewing economic crisis turned into a financial and banking crisis. The restrictions were not, however, formalized as capital controls.
