ETI signs $250m senior bridge-to-bond loan facility

ECOBANK Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has signed a $250 million senior unsecured bridge-to-bond loan facility with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), acting as global coordinators and initial mandated lead arrangers to support trade finance and the general corporate purposes of the group, while Mashreqbank psc. joined the transaction as a mandated lead arranger.

According to a statement, the facility has a tenor of 12 months, with a six-month extension option at the lenders’ discretion. The bridge-to-bond loan also comprises an accordion feature that enables an increase in the total commitments under this facility within a given timeframe.

While commenting on the facility, Ayo Adepoju, Ecobank’s Group CFO, said, “We are very excited about this new facility, which provides additional liquidity buffers for the bank.

“The firm’s continued ability to demonstrate market support and, in particular, diversify its funding sources under challenging economic conditions reflects the amount of work that has been done in cementing relationships and building credibility in recent years,” he said.

It will be recalled that in December, 2023, Ecobank secured a $200 million loan to fund its sustainability and climate strategy as well as climate action plan in what was said to be the first of its kind to a sub-Saharan African financial institution.

According to the lender, Proparco, which is the lead arranger of the facility and the German consulting firm, IPC, would offer advisory support to ETI’s teams to actualise the targets.

Meanwhile, in the bank’s third-quarter results, which were reported in both Naira and US dollars, the financial institution said while its gross earnings went up in naira value, it was down by 15 per cent in US dollar terms to $2.084 billion.

Its revenue rose by 12 per cent to $1.518 billion and up 55 per cent to N884 billion.

The financial institution said the increase in revenue was driven by the net impact of higher interest rates, particularly in Anglophone West Africa and Nigeria, growth in the volume of interest-earning assets, significantly higher fees from treasury services and solutions and higher cash management fees.

Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba