MTN Completes N100bn Commercial Paper Issuance

MTN Nigeria has completed the issuance of its series I and II notes, under its N100bn commercial paper debt programme.

The company announced the issuance in a notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the investing public.

It priced the Series I 180-day CP at an effective yield of 4.90 per cent for N20bn size and the Series II 270-day CP, sized at N80bn, cleared at an effective yield of 5.95 per cent.

A statement on Wednesday signed by the Company Secretary, Uto Ukpanah, said that the telco initially set out to issue up to N50bn under the N100bn CP programme but at the conclusion of the book build, the CP issuance was 400 per cent oversubscribed.

MTN explained that it then opted to issue up to the N100bn limit of the registered CP programme, with participation from individual and institutional investors, including pension fund administrators, asset managers and corporates.

The Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Ferdinand Moolman, said, “The N100bn issued is the largest debut 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.”

The company said the proceeds from the CP issuance would be used to support the company’s working capital and general corporate purposes adding that the Series I and II notes would be listed on the FMDQ Securities Exchange.

It added that Chapel Hill Denham acted as arranger and dealer on the commercial paper transaction.