NBET’s $350m investment in NSIA yields $67m profit

Authority transfers $417.46m to NBET
Power generating firms may soon heave a sigh of relief as the Nigeria Bulk Energy Trading Company Plc (NBET) has received $417.46 million from the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).

The amount transferred to NBET comprised $350 million being the sum invested and $67 million interest generated, less administrative fees, following the maturity of the four years investment term.

Management of the NSIA, operators of the country’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), in a statement yesterday announced the payment of $417.46 million to the NBET following the expiration of the four years investment.

Power generating firms in the country have already taken the Federal Government to Court over claims of indebtedness for power generated and distributed yet to be settled together with interest payments due amounting to over N1 trillion.

But they claimed that to address Federal Government and NBET’s indebtedness to the GENCOs, government should work with the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, NBET, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the GENCOs.

This, they argued, will create a temporary relief with the N701 billion Payment Assurance Facility under which the GENCOs were to be paid for electricity generated and distributed from January 2017 to December 2018.

NSIA declared that the amount transferred to NBET include payment of the gross sum of $417.46 million in three tranches of $8 million in May 2016, $5.5 million in August 2016 and $403.96 million in July 2018.

The returned fund consists of the principal sum of $350 million allocated to the NSIA from the proceeds of the $1 billion Eurobond issued by the Federal Government in July 2013 under a fund management agreement and $67.46 million (net of fees) as interest and earnings over the investment period.

Speaking on the development, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NSIA, Uche Orji stated, that the authority had accomplished its goal of enhancing NBET’s liquidity position whilst enabling it to focus on its principal function of developing the electricity market.

“NSIA’s role as fund manager helped to safeguard NBET’s capital against market volatility and also conferred the agreed financial benefits on the company,” he stated.

Responding, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NBET, Marilyn Amobi, said: “NSIA as a competent fund manager preserved the capital and helped to promote NBET’s credit worthiness as an off-taker for grid injected energy in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).”