MTN Nigeria has raised US$2.1bn worth of debt from a total of 17 banks to expand its network throughout the country.
A group of 15 banks provided a N250bn (US$1.65bn) fixed-term loan, while two foreign banks brought a total of US$450m. MTN said it…
MTN Nigeria has raised US$2.1bn worth of debt from a total of 17 banks to expand its network throughout the country.
A group of 15 banks provided a N250bn (US$1.65bn) fixed-term loan, while two foreign banks brought a total of US$450m. MTN said it arranged the facilities itself.
The Naira-denominated tranche refinances N207bn (US$1.37bn) worth of commercial paper raised in 2007 as part of a US$2bn debt package. The company said that that the Naira-denominated tranche was increased from N207bn to N250bn when it was 151% oversubscribed.
Access Bank, Afribank Nigeria, Bank PHB, Citibank Nigeria, Diamond Bank, Ecobank Nigeria, First City Monument Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria, Union Bank of Nigeria, United Bank of Africa and Zenith Bank joined the five-year Naira tranche.
The dollar-denominated debt consists of two facilities. There is a US$250m provided by KfW IPEX-Bank of Germany, comprehensively covered by the Swedish export credit agency, EKN, to buy Ericsson equipment.
The second part is a US$200m buyer’s credit facility from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to acquire equipment from Huawei.
On 31 March, MTN Nigeria had over 33 million customers.
