The Bank of Industry (BoI) has received an award for the ‘International Syndicated Loan Deal of the Year’ at the Bonds and Loans Africa Awards ceremony.
This is contained in a statement signed by the Head, Corporate Communications, BoI, Mrs Hadiza Olaosebikan.
The bank was presented with the award in recognition of its $1 billion syndicated term loan facility successfully raised in the international market in December 2020.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the award ceremony took place on Wednesday in Mount Nelson, Cape Town, South Africa.
Mr Olukayode Pitan, Managing Director, BoI, was quoted by the statement as saying that, the recognition highlighted the bank’s impact as Nigeria’s leading Development Finance Institution (DFI).
This, he said, was seen in the BoI’s commitment to maximising its developmental impact by raising and deploying funds that enhanced its capacity to support customers.
Pitan said that the award came on the back of BoI’s successful issuance of a €750mn Senior Eurobond (the first by any African national DFI) in February 2022.
He noted that the bank had raised about 3.8 billion dollars from the international financial market in the last four year.
“This includes another syndicated loan of €1bn in March 2020; and a 750 million dollars syndicated medium-term loan in 2018 which has been fully paid off,” Pitan said.
He said that the exhaustive selection process for the award involved close examination of deal size, tenor, structure, and distribution; analysis and background of the borrower and their accessibility to financing.
Others, he said, included borrowers extra credit for deals that demonstrate high quality execution, accessing new pools of liquidity, innovative structuring, and opening-up new markets.
“We look forward to intensifying our efforts to catalyse sustainable economic growth for Nigeria and the continent at large,” he said.
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Pitan also acknowledged the significant role that myriad strategic partners played in the consummation of this deal in spite of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are especially grateful for the support of our lead arrangers, underwriters and book runners.
“Afreximbank, Credit Suisse A.G, Rand Merchant Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; and the Central Bank of Nigeria provided a 100 per cent currency swap that allowed us to mitigate foreign exchange rate risks, ” he said.
The Bonds and Loans Africa Awards has been recognising the most innovative and ground-breaking deals from sovereign, corporate and financial institution issuers and borrowers since 2014.
The annual event brings together the industry’s most high-profile figures thereby raising the profile of the African financial markets with the international investment community.
