MTN Nigeria Issued Largest Commercial Paper by a Corporation in Nigeria
MTN Nigeria Communications Plc has successfully completed the issuance of N100 billion Series I & II Notes under the debut N100 billion Commercial Paper (CP) Programme.
The company priced the Series I 180 day CP at an effective yield rate of 4.90 percent for N20 billion size while the Series II 270 day CP size N80 billion was sold at an effective yield rate of 5.95 percent.
In the statement released on the Nigerian Stock Exchange website, the telecom giant said “We initially set out to issue up to N50 billion under the N100 billion CP Programme but at the conclusion of the bookbuild, the CP issuance was C.400% subscribed. Given the significantly over-subscribed book, MTN Nigeria opted to issue up to N100 billion limit of the registered CP Programme, 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 explained that the level of interest in the company’s debut in the Nigerian market as seen by the volume and value of bids placed by investors showed the level of confidence investors have in the telecom leader and the trust that it would continue to deliver strategic objectives and maintain market leadership.
Speaking on the success of the Commercial Paper, 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 will lower our overall cost of borrowing.”