FBN Capital Limited recorded another milestone as two of its transactions last year were recognised at the just concluded Euromoney Project Finance Deals of the Year Awards, which took place on February 20, 2014 in London. The awards, which were conferred last week during a ceremony in London, were the Africa Telecoms Deal of the Year: Etisalat Nigeria and the Africa Oil & Gas Midstream Deal of the Year: Accugas Limited.
FBN Capital Limited (a subsidiary of FBN Holdings Plc), acted as the Global Facility Coordinator and Financial Modeling Bank on the Accugas Limited US$ 225 million Project Finance Debt Facility. The firm also undertook the role of de-facto Financial Adviser to the Borrower, Accugas Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven Energy International Limited), while FirstBank of Nigeria Plc, UBA, FCMB and Stanbic IBTC, jointly acted as Mandated Lead Arrangers on the transaction to assist the company in structuring and raising US$ 225 million for its gas pipeline project.
FBN Capital was also the Joint Financial Adviser to Etisalat’s US$1.25bn Loan Facility to fund the addition of 924 BTS sites. FBN Capital and Citigroup Global Markets, together as ‘Financial Advisers’, were mandated by Etisalat to raise financing to refinance its existing $650mm senior debt facility, and finance needs for its network deployment plan across Nigeria.
According to Patrick Mgbenwelu, Head of Debt Solutions in FBN Capital, ‘The Accugas refinancing and expansion transaction sets a benchmark in terms of how subsequent gas pipeline transactions are financed and the strong support which Nigerian banks have for gas pipeline financings. The transaction is expected to have a substantial positive impact in helping to drive the Federal Government’s power sector reform agenda given its accelerated delivery of power plant gas pipeline infrastructure.
On the Etisalat transaction, Patrick Mgbenwelu noted that the size of this financing and speed at which it was concluded was a demonstration of the strong capacity of Nigerian banks to support robustly packaged transactions and Etisalat’s “blue chip” status played a major role in achieving this financial close in time.
Commenting on the awards, Kayode Akinkugbe, Managing Director of FBN Capital stated ‘‘We are very pleased with this achievement, as these awards show we remain committed to providing innovative ideas while demonstrating unrivalled market expertise and reliable business values.
In 2014, FBN Capital was recognised as the Best Investment Bank in Nigeria for the third year running by Global Finance Magazine. It was also recognised in the World Finance Banking Awards as the Best Investment Bank in Nigeria and the EMEA Finance African Banking Awards as the Best Local Investment Bank in 2013.
