Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Eight companies have been chosen from a pool of 38 bidders to ensure the successful sale of the $6.2 billion Eurobond to be issued by the Nigerian government.
The federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari had informed the National Assembly when it presented the 2021 Appropriation Act that the sum of N2.3 trillion ($6.2 billion) would be required to finance the budget deficit.
Mr Buhari later wrote a letter to the Senate in May 2021 of the need to approve this loan request and this was authorised in June.
After the parliament’s approval, the Debt Management Office (DMO) swung into action by asking interested organisations to bid for the transaction through an open competitive bidding process as stipulated in the Public Procurement Act, 2007 (as amended) and 38 responded.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the debt office said it rigorously evaluated the bids of the companies to ascertain their technical capacities to execute the Eurobond sale.
It said after this process, it found eight of them worthy, with four chosen as international bookrunners/joint lead managers, one taken each as Nigerian bookrunners, financial adviser, international legal adviser and Nigerian legal adviser.
Business Post reports that JP Morgan, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Standard Chartered Bank and Goldman Sachs were picked as international bookrunners/joint lead managers.
Chapel Hill Denham Advisory Services Limited was taken as the Nigerian bookrunner, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited scaled through as the financial adviser, White & Case LLP was selected as the international legal adviser, while Banwo & Ighodalo was chosen as the Nigerian legal adviser.
In the statement, the DMO said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has authorised these firms to be part of the Eurobond sale, which should start very soon.
“With the approval of the transaction advisers by FEC, the DMO will now accelerate activities towards the issuance of the Eurobonds,” a part of the statement read.
The debt office further said, “The Eurobonds to be issued are for the purpose of raising funds for the new external borrowing of N2.343 trillion (about $6.2 billion) provided in the 2021 Appropriation Act to part-finance the deficit.
“Whilst the government expects a successful outing, it will be mindful of costs and risks (in terms of tenor and pricing) in determining the amount of Eurobonds to issue.”
“Since the Eurobonds are being issued to part-finance the 2021 budget deficit, the proceeds will be used to fund various projects in the budget.
“In addition, the proceeds will result in an inflow of foreign exchange which in turn, will increase Nigeria’s external reserves and support the Naira exchange rate,” it added.
