MTN Nigeria in a statement today said it has successfully completed the issuance of its debut N100 billion Commercial Paper, which was 400 percent oversubscribed.
The 180-day issuance was priced at an effective yield of 4.9 percent for the N20 billion size and the 270 day CP sized at N80 billion cleared at an effective yield of 5.95 percent.
“We initially set out to issue up to N50 billion under the N100 billion CP program but, at the conclusion of the book build, the CP issuance was c.400% subscribed. Given the significantly over-subscribed book, MTN Nigeria opted to issue up to the N100 billion limit of the registered CP program with active participation from a diverse orbit of eligible individual and institutional investors, which include pension fund administrators, asset managers, corporates and other financial institutions,” MTN Nigeria said in a statement.
Commenting at the closure of the Book Build Ferdinand Moolman, Chief Executive Officer, said: “The N100 billion issued is the largest debut Commercial Paper issuance by a Nigerian corporate. It allows us to broaden our sources of funding and combines our established lines of credit with access to capital market funding, which lower our overall cost of borrowing.”
The proceeds from the CP issuance will be applied towards MTN Nigeria’s working capital and general corporate purposes. The Series I & II Notes will be listed on the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
Chapel Hill Denham acted as Arranger and Dealer on the debut Commercial paper transaction.
The MTN Nigeria Commercial Paper is the latest in a long lien of Nigerian Corporates who have been actively issuing Commercial papers in recent times with some N380 billion due in the second half of the year alone.