Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The N10 billion Series 1 fixed rate senior unsecured bonds of the Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc have been oversubscribed by investors by 3.18 per cent, Business Post has learned.
It was gathered that investor participation in the exercise cut across qualified institutional investors, corporates, and high net-worth individuals, with an allocation of 98.7 per cent to pension fund managers.
NDEP Plc offered for sale N10.00 billion worth of corporate bonds to investors under its N20 billion debt issuance programme approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The tenor of the debt instrument sold by the integrated indigenous energy firm is five years and was offered at a coupon rate of 17.0 per cent.
In a regulatory notice, the company disclosed that “a total of 61 application forms for 10,318,000 units of N1,000 each, valued at N10.318 billion, were received in respect of the issue,” indicating a subscription rate of 103.18 per cent.
NDEP described this as a demonstration of “investor confidence in the NDEP brand, business model and long-term strategy, all supported by an “A” rating from Agusto & Co Limited, and an A+ rating from GCR Ratings.”
The firm, in the disclosure filed to the NASD over-the-counter (OTC) Securities Exchange, stated that all applications were valid, processed and accordingly considered in the allotment of the bonds and that a request would be “made to list the bonds on the Financial Markets Dealers Quotations (FMDQ)” Securities Exchange.
It further said the basis of allotment has been cleared by SEC and that “the bonds will be credited into the specified clearing system depository accounts of successful subscribers by the registrar to the issue, Coronation Registrars Limited.”
“We are thrilled to announce the success of the first series of bonds issued under our programme, particularly the enormous interest shown by our investors.
“The act of diversifying our funding sources will further enhance our operational capacity and also enable us to attain our strategic goals and objectives as a company,” the chief executive of NDEP, Mr Adegbite Falade, commented on the bond sales.
NDEP, which sells its shares at the unlisted securities market, operates across the entire value chain of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, i.e., upstream, midstream, and downstream.
