By Dipo Olowookere
The Kogi State government has restructured the N8 billion bonds it issued to investors a few years ago as part of efforts to raise fresh funds from the capital market.
The state government had sold the debt instrument in two tranches under its N20 billion bond issuance programme.
The series I was the sale of N5 billion with an annual coupon rate of 15 per cent, while the series II was worth N3 billion with a yearly fixed rate of 17 per cent.
Business Post reports that the first tranche was to mature in December 2020. The second tranche of the debt series had a tenor of March 2022.
However, the state government chose to restructure the bonds by shifting the dates for the full payment of the amount investors used to purchase the papers.
In a notice on Friday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) confirmed the restructuring of the bonds by extra three years each.
The exchange disclosed that the 15.00% KGB DEC 2020 bond now has a maturing date of 2023, while the 17.00% KGB MAR 2022 note is now to mature in 2025.
In a separate document sighted by this newspaper, it was disclosed that the state government changed the principal repayment structure of the bond from bullet payment to amortized payment (payment of coupon and a portion of the principal).