Zenith Bank notifies investors of $500m notes issuance

Zenith Bank Plc has notified investors of the $500 million second tranche Global Medium Term Note Programme.

Zenith Bank Company Secretary, Michael Otu, said the bank now intends to revalidate the programme and raise up to $500 million under the second tranche of notes that will be issued under the programme.

“The first Tranche Notes has been listed and admitted to trading on the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) and it is intended that the second tranche notes will also be listed on the ISE and admitted to trading on its regulated market. ”As was done with the first tranche notes, the bank intends to issue the second tranche notes directly but will retain the flexibility to issue through an offshore special purpose vehicle where market conditions require and allow for same,” he said in a statement.

The lender had earlier in 2014, established $1 billion Global Medium Term Note Programme and subsequently raised $500 million under the first tranche of Notes issued under the programme.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings has assigned the bank’s upcoming issuance of $500 million, five-year senior unsecured notes an expected rating of ‘B+(EXP)-Expected Rating. The credit rating agency also said in a statement that it had assigned the notes a Recovery Rating of ‘RR4’, which denotes average recovery prospects in the event of default.

According to the statement: “The notes will be issued under Zenith’s updated USD1 billion Global Medium Term Note (GMTN) programme. The assignment of the final rating is contingent on the receipt of final documents conforming to the information received to date.”

It further stated that the senior unsecured notes are rated in line with Zenith’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of ‘B+’, adding that in Fitch’s view: “the likelihood of default on these notes reflects the likelihood of default of the bank.” “Zenith’s IDR is driven by its stand alone creditworthiness as defined by its Viability Rating (VR) of ‘b+’.