Union Bank plans to raise N20bn from institutional investors, HNIs via CPs

Union Bank Plc has concluded plans to raise N20 billion from institutional investors and high net-worth individuals (HNIs) via the issuance of commercial papers.

The bank made the announcement in a regulatory filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Monday. According to the filed document, funding raised via the CP is expected to provide the bank with further working capital.

It said the CPs, with dealers listed as Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited and Union Capital Markets Limited, will comprise of the third and fourth issuance series of the N100 billion CP programme registered in 2018.

The bank’s statement also disclosed that the debut issuance of the series 1 and 2 offer in the domestic capital markets had successfully raised N24.3 billion in January 2019.

The current issuance is 180-day and 268-day for the series 3 and 4 respectively. It opened on January 16, 2020 and is scheduled to close tomorrow, January 21, 2020. The bank said it is target an issuance size of N20 billion across both tenors.

Highlighting some of its features, the bank noted that it has approximately 5.6 million active customers serviced across 280 branches and cash centres nationwide, an asset base of over N1.8 trillion and total equity in excess of N240 billion as at September 30, 2019.

UBN said it has assigned ratings of A – from Agusto & Co.; A – from DataPro and BBB+ from GCR, and that the CP will be listed on the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange platform.