First Bank Plans Five-year Global Bond Offering

 Nigeria’s oldest commercial bank, First Bank NIgeria Limited, is hosting a global investor call on Wednesday for a group of high networth individuals and small group of investors to discuss the company’s plans to float a new dollar-denominated senior unsecured note.

In a statement filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the parent company of First Bank Nigeria, FBN Holdings Plc, said three international bookrunners have been appointed to midwife the global debt offering – Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Renaissance Capital and Standard Chartered Bank.

First Bank says the bond offering of which no amount or size has been disclosed, is being pursued under Rule 144a Registration S of the US Securities Act of 1933 as amended, subject to market conditions.

The offering by First Bank would be the first commercial bank global offering since the coronavirus pandemic started in March this year.

Since last year, a number of Nigerian banks such as Access Bank, Zenith Bank and UBA have called-up their foreign currency debts ahead of maturities, which helped them mitigate the two currency adjustments carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria between April and June this year.

Lillian Jijingi

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