By Ademola Alawiye with agency report

The International Finance Corporation has invested N4.58bn ($29.6m) in Guaranty Trust Bank.

Reuters reported on Monday that the IFC acquired 284,697,017 new shares of GTBank, which operates 183 branches in the country.

IFC in July said it had received an expression of interest from the private sector arm of the World Bank to acquire new shares of the bank by way of a placement and would seek shareholders approval for the transaction.

GTBank completed a $500m 10-year Eurobond in May to replace its maturing $350m debt due next January. It also has a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The bank had launched a five-year $500m issue senior unsecured notes under its $2bn global medium term note programme.

The issue which was the first benchmark size, non-sovereign offering out of Nigeria had been assigned a long- term rating of B+(Stable) by both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.

A statement by the bank had noted that the bond carried a coupon rate of 7.5 per cent per year (payable semi-annually) and would mature on May 19, 2016. It added that the notes would be listed on the London Stock Exchange.

It was gathered that proceeds from the placement would be used partly to refinance the bank’s $350m Eurobond maturing in January 2012, and partly for general corporate purposes.

The statement also noted that the issue price of the five year notes was 98.981, while the spread was 588 basis points.

The date of the first pay is November 19, 2011, whereas the settlement date and maturity date are May 19, 2011 and May 19, 2016.

Analysts had attributed the success of the outing to the effectiveness of the ongoing Central Bank of Nigeria reforms which they said inspired international institutional investors confidence in the Nigerian banking sector.

Source: Punch