Africa Finance Corporation concludes debut Eurobond issue

AFRICA Finance Corporation (“AFC”), an African Supranational financial institution, priced its inaugural US$750 million 4.375% 5-year international bond.

This represents the first issue under AFC’s US$3,000,000,000 Global Medium Term Note Programme. The issue’s settlement date is 29 April 2015 with a maturity date of 29 April 2020.

The proceeds of the issuance will be used for general corporate and financing purposes and to repay all amounts outstanding under an existing bridge facility.  The Eurobonds were placed following a seven day roadshow across 3 continents and involving meetings with over 100 institutional investors.

The final order book was more than six times oversubscribed at over US$4.7 billion from a total of 315 investors, enabling a well-diversified distribution among international institutional investors across Asia, Europe and the US. The bonds will be listed on the Irish Stock Exchange.

AFC is a multilateral development financial institution dedicated to infrastructure financing in Africa, primarily through debt and equity investments, project development and financial advisory services.

AFC commenced operations on 1 November 2007 and is focused on bridging Africa’s large infrastructure deficit by financing projects that have high developmental impact on the economies of African countries.

Its primary goal is to be the leading African institution for infrastructure financing and facilitation of international trade in Africa. As at 31 December 2014, ‎AFC had investments in 22 countries, a balance sheet size of US$2.4 billion and shareholders’ funds of US$1.35 billion.

AFC is one of the highest investment grade-rated multilateral finance institutions on the African continent, with an A3 (long term) /P2 (short term) foreign currency debt rating by Moody’s Investors Service.

Citigroup Global Markets Limited acted as Global Coordinator, and together with Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International plc, The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Standard Chartered Bank, acted as Joint Book runner for the U.S. dollar-denominated Rule 144A/Reg. S issue.