…to buy back $300m debt
Fidelity Bank Plc has notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the investing public of its intention to launch up to $ 500,000,000 senior unsecured medium-term debit notes, as well as a tender offer to purchase the bank’s outstanding $ 300, 00,000 6.875 per cent notes due in May 2018.
The bank also indicated its willingness to list the notes on the Irish Stock Exchange with expectation that the notes would be traded on its regulated market. The Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission have given “No Objection” approvals to the transaction.
The bank intends to issue the notes directly but will retain the flexibility to substitute the issuer with an offshore special purpose vehicle where market conditions require and allow for such, prior to the maturity of the notes.
The bank also intends to utilise the net proceeds of the notes to finance the tender offer of the Existing Notes and for general banking purposes, adding that it will pay the net proceeds from the notes issuance after settling the Existing Notes into its foreign currency domiciliary account, which may be retained by the bank in foreign currency or converted into naira, depending on the bank’s requirement, from time to time.
A certificate of capital importation will not be obtained in respect of the proceeds of the notes that are not converted into naira because a CCI is only issued in respect of capital imported into Nigeria and converted into
naira.
The bank also intends to make the principal repayment and interest payments on the notes from its foreign currency reserves since it will not be able to obtain access to the Nigerian foreign exchange market for the purpose of making such
payments.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the bank obtains the approval of the CBN to access the official foreign exchange market if for any reason the bank does not have sufficient foreign currency reserves to meet the principal and interest payments due on the notes.
