The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has completed a CHF 350 million (~$430 million) 5-year digital bond issuance, becoming the first African multilateral institution to list, trade, and settle a debt security on a fully regulated digital exchange.
Priced at a 1.4925% coupon, the bond is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and registered on the blockchain-based SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) platform, with clearing and settlement handled via SIX SIS. The transaction represents the largest digital bond ever issued in the Swiss franc market, surpassing the World Bank’s CHF 200 million digital issuance in 2024.
Jointly structured by Commerzbank AG (Technical Lead) and Deutsche Bank AG, the offering attracted broad institutional interest, with conventional financial institutions and asset managers taking up the vast majority of the order book.
Strategic & Capital Markets Impact
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Institutional Diversification: By tapping into distributed ledger technology (DLT) infrastructure, AFC opened a new channel for global capital allocation. Conventional Swiss investors accounted for 90% of total allocations, demonstrating institutional appetite for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) backed by investment-grade credit.
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Competitive Funding Cost: The 1.4925% coupon provided AFC with attractive pricing relative to its conventional benchmark USD Eurobond issuances, serving as a cost-effective vehicle to fund its broader infrastructure and industrial project portfolio across Africa.
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Digital Debt Precedent: The transaction marks a milestone in capital market modernization for emerging market issuers, demonstrating that regulated tokenized securities can scale effectively for major supranational liquidity needs alongside conventional Eurobonds.
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