United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc yesterday listed its recent N30.5 billion bond issue on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the FMDQ OTC Plc, a dual listing that should ensure that investors in the bond have multiple opportunities to trade on their investments. FMDQ is an over-the-counter (OTC) market for fixed-income and currency securities.
The listing on the NSE provides opportunity for retail investors to take advantage of the fixed return on the investment grade notes through the primary market while the FMDQ will provide a secondary market platform for institutional and foreign investors to trade the UBA bond. The UBA bond is the first corporate bond to be admitted on the FMDQ platform and the first of its kind on a fixed income OTC in Africa.
UBA, in December 2014, successfully raised N30.5 billion Tier-II capital through the issuance of seven-year fixed rate unsecured notes, maturing in 2021.
Group managing director, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, noted that the listing of the bond on the FMDQ was another milestone for the bank pointing out that it had floated the first initial public offering on the NSE.
“We were the first Nigerian bank to do an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) after successfully listing in 1971. We were also the first to issue Global Depository Receipts (GDR) in 1998. We are always willing to explore new frontiers in our quest to have an efficient market that meets our developmental needs,” Oduoza said.
According to him, the banking group will utilize the proceeds of the bond issue for long term commercial and retail sector lending as well as the expansion of its delivery channels to provide efficient banking services to customers.
He reiterated that the bank is committed to building a long term and sustainable business and assured that it will ensure proper utilization of the bond issue to grow its market share and profitability while ensuring a robust risk management framework and strong corporate governance
Chief executive officer, FMDQ OTC, Mr. Bola Onadele, commended UBA for being a pioneer in the market and reiterated the FMDQ’s commitment to the development of the Nigerian financial markets, through its efficient platform for the registration, listing, quotation and valuation of bonds.
He outlined that listing on FMDQ provides issuer with global visibility and transparency, improved secondary market liquidity, price formation and benchmark pricing thus resulting to a more globally competitive capital market.
Group chief executive officer, United Capital Plc, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni, said the UBA bond was the biggest and most successful bond issue in 2014 noting that the success recorded at a time of uncertainty in the capital market was largely due to the credibility and strength of the UBA brand.
