On 30 September 2021, Renaissance Capital, a leading emerging and frontier markets investment bank, in the capacity of Joint Lead Manager and Bookrunner, successfully completed Access Bank plc’s $500mn Additional Tier 1 Eurobond offering.
This Basel III-based USD-denominated PerpNC5.25 Regulation S/144A Additional Tier 1 bond was priced at 9.125%, which implies an optimal premium to Access Bank’s earlier launched senior bond issue and is in line with comparable AT1 issues from the broader CEEMEA region.
The bond issue was placed as part of a broad $1.5bn funding programme.
The offering enjoyed strong investor demand, highlighting the positive perception of the Bank’s credit story and the management’s clear strategy.
Regulatory approvals allowed Access Bank to comfortably tap markets for a benchmark $500mn AT1 transaction – the first from a Nigerian bank.
Samuel Sule, Acting CEO, Nigeria, Renaissance Capital, said: “The success of this transaction highlights Access Bank’s solid credit story and sets a strong benchmark for Additional Tier 1 issues from Nigerian banks. The transaction follows the release of new regulatory capital guidelines from the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Renaissance Capital is pleased to have been a part of this concerted effort to deepen the Nigerian capital markets and support economic growth.”
The CBN in its new regulatory capital guidelines notes that Total Regulatory Capital (TRC) is the sum of Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1), Additional Tier 1 Capital (AT1) and Tier 2 Capital (T2), net of regulatory adjustments.
Meanwhile, tier 1 capital is the sum of CET1 and AT1 capital, net of the regulatory adjustments applied to those categories.
Access Bank plc is a leading full-service Nigerian commercial bank with operations in 11 African countries, rated B2 (negative) and B (stable) by Moody’s and Fitch, respectively. Access Bank ranks number one in Nigeria by assets, deposits, customers, revenue and RoE as at H1 2021.