Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The management of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc has announced raising up to N100 billion from the sale of commercial papers.
Funds from the exercise, according to an earlier notice to the investing community, would be used for working capital as well as for general corporate purposes.
In the notice last month, the telco had said it was raising about N50 billion in two tranches under its N100 billion commercial paper issuance programme already approved by the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
MTN Nigeria, while updating the market of the debt programme on Tuesday, said it has sold the commercial papers to investors, who oversubscribed it by about 400 percent.
According to the statement signed by the company secretary, Uto Ukpanah, the interest showed to the exercise by investors forced the management to increase the amount raised from the sale by 100 percent to N100 billion from the initial N50 billion.
“We initially set out to issue up to N50 billion under the N100 billion CP programme, but at the conclusion of the book build, the CP issuance was about 400 percent subscribed.
“Given the significantly over-subscribed book, MTN Nigeria opted to issue up to the 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,” Ukpanah said in the statement.
Business Post gathered that for the series I note with 180-day tenor, MTN Nigeria raised N20 billion at an effective yield of 4.90 percent, while for the series II with 270-day maturity, it raised N80 billion, clearing at an effective yield of 5.95 percent.
Ukpanah said further in the notice that the level of interest in MTN Nigeria’s debut in the Nigerian debt market (as measured by the volume and value of bids) is a strong reflection of investor confidence in MTN Nigeria’s ability to continue to deliver on its strategic objectives and maintain market leadership, as well as the strong credit profile that supports the company’s ability to meet its debt service obligations.
Quoting the CEO of MTN Nigeria, Mr Ferdinand Moolman, on the exercise, the statement said, “The N100 billion issued is the largest 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.”
