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FirstBank Issues $450 Million Eurobond

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<br /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">FirstBank of Nigeria Limited has successfully issued a $450 million tier-2 Eurobond, THISDAY learnt at the weekend. The debt instrument with a seven-year tenor has a call option after five years.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to a reliable industry source, the Eurobond also has a coupon of eight per cent and 8.25 per cent yield to maturity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The debt instrument is expected to continue to extend the tenor of the bank’s dollar funding profile and support its continued lending to the corporate sector. It is also expected to raise the bank’s capital base.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">FirstBank had in 2013, issued a $300 million Eurobond.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The latest issue by FirstBank increased the amount of funds raised by Nigerian banks from the Eurobond market this year to N1.550 billion. Three Nigerian banks, Zenith Bank, Diamond Bank and Access Bank, had raised a total of N1.1 billion from the dollar-denominated debt market in the first half of the year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In line with its desire to boost its international presence, FirstBank last year acquired 100 per cent equity interest in the West African subsidiaries of the International Commercial Bank Financial Group Holdings AG (ICBFGH). With that, the Nigerian bank expanded its operations to four more countries on the continent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The transaction had expanded FirstBank’s geographic footprint to cover 10 markets internationally, with existing operations outside Nigeria in the United Kingdom and France through its subsidiary, FBN Bank (UK) Limited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank, Mr. Bisi Onasanya, had said the acquisition clearly aligned with the bank’s strategic focus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to him, as a result of the acquisition, FirstBank would consolidate its position as one of the largest corporate and retail banking financial institutions in Africa (excluding South Africa).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Citibank Nigeria Limited, Mr. Omar Hafeez, the security challenge in the north-eastern part of Nigeria has not deterred foreign investors from buying debt instruments issued by Nigerian banks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“The investment community is very well informed. Nigeria is a loan market and financial investors have been tapping into treasury bills and bonds for a very long time,” Hafeez said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hafeez said Nigeria was witnessing an increase in both foreign direct investments and portfolio flows.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“The demand for long-term dollars is increasing in Nigeria as industries such as oil and gas and power develop,” he added.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He said banks were tapping Eurobonds to bolster their capital bases and also to finance big-ticket deals in the oil and gas and the newly privatised power sector.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px;">-</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">THISDAY</span></div>

FirstBank Issues $450 Million Eurobond

First Bank Logo- Stock Image FirstBank of Nigeria Limited has successfully issued a $450 million tier-2 Eurobond, THISDAY learnt at the ...

2:22 pm

13 Nigerian Banks Listed In Top 1000 World Banks Ranking

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thirteen Nigerian banks have been listed among the Leading 1000 Global Banks as published by <span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">The Banker</span> magazine of the<span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> Financial Times</span> Group in its 2014 edition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Nigerian banks that made the ranking based on Tier-1 capital are Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, FirstBank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Fidelity Bank and Ecobank Nigeria.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Others are Skye Bank, First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and Union Bank of Nigeria.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The report, which was released weekend, said banks in the world, for the first time since the global financial crisis, returned profit of $920 billion which is 23 per cent more than their previous peak of $786 billion achieved in 2007 before the financial crisis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The report, which listed 13 Nigerian banks that made the ranking, underlines Nigeria’s financial sector’s leading position in Africa as no other African country has up to 13 banks in the Top 1000 World listing of banks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to the report, Zenith Bank ranked top in Nigeria at 293 as Guaranty Trust is on number 415, FirstBank on number 424, Access Bank 532, United Bank for Africa ranked 539 and Fidelity 622.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The report said profit on capital of three Nigerian banks that are not foreign-owned subsidiaries increased. These are FirstBank, that has its profit on capital increased to 25.32 per cent from 25.13 per cent; Access Bank, from 21.19 per cent to 21.24 per cent and First City Monument Bank, 15.77 per cent from 15.07 per cent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">23% increase in profit</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Editor of the magazine, Mr. Brain Caplen, noted that the 23 per cent increase in profit of global banks from 2007 “is a good news but the better news is that capital has also increased at a reasonable pace whereas assets have stayed flat. This means that returns on capital are only slightly improved but the hope is that this upturn is more sustainable than the last one.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Caplen disclosed that a large proportion of the profit is from China— about 32 per cent of the total which is more than the next three highest profit countries of USA, Japan and Canada combined.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Highest in Africa</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of the 25 top banks in Africa from the ranking, the highest of eight is from Nigeria, the largest economy in the continent while the United Bank for Africa is the only Nigerian bank in the top 10 highest movers in Africa.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In all, Africa has 31 banks in the Top 1000 World Banks 2014 with Nigeria having 13 representing 41.94 per cent. The 31 African banks in the ranking are from nine countries: Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Angola, Gabon, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco and Togo.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/13-nigerian-banks-make-top-1000-world-banks-ranking/" style="outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">-</a>VANGUARD</span></div>

13 Nigerian Banks Listed In Top 1000 World Banks Ranking

Thirteen Nigerian banks have been listed among the Leading 1000 Global Banks as published by The Banker magazine of the Financial Ti...

5:09 pm

Nigeria To Contribute $17m To AU Budget In 2015

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nigeria is to contribute 16.96 million dollars to the 522 million-dollar African Union (AU) budget for 2015 as adopted in Malabo on Friday, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">NAN reports that the 23rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union inMalaboadopted the budget on the last day of this weeks AU summit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Documents made available to NAN in Malabo showed that Nigerias assessed contribution is 699,421 higher than the 2014 figure of 16.2 million dollars.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">NAN learnt that the contribution of the 54-member AU member states to the 2015 budget is 131 million dollars compared to the 126 million dollars in 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nigeria is responsible for about 17 per cent of the operational budget of the AU and the 2015 budget.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to the current scale of assessment, 65 per cent of the 131 million dollarscontribution would be assessed on the five main contributors including Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Libya and South Africa.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">International partners would contribute 72 per cent of the budget (225.5 million dollars) while 10.9 million dollars, 4.7 million dollars and 205,000 dollars would be drawn from the reserve fund, acquisition and property fund, and the women fund respectively.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A breakdown of the approved budget showed that the AUwould spend 142.6 million dollars for operational budget and 379.4 million dollars on programmes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">NAN learnt that the 2015 budget framework focuses on the five pillars of the AU strategic plan including peace and security, socio-economic development, integration, capacity building and communications.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the closing ceremony of the AU summit on Friday, President Mohammed Abdel Aziz of Mauritania, the AU Chairperson, called on member states to take necessary measures on the alternative sources of funding the AU.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Aziz expressed concern on the unions over-dependence on international partners to fund the organisations programms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nigerias Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Aminu Wali, in a statement read at the Executive Council of the Union prior to the adoption of the budget, decried the over dependence on partners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He noted that the 2015 budget increased level of dependence on international partners was alarming and required urgent attention from the union.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If we do not depend on international partners this much at our national levels, I believe we can replicate same at the continental.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today, Africas economic growth has been exponential with the discovery and exploration of new resources in some countries, the development of domestic markets in some and industrialisation in some others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With some rising revenues in these countries, we can as well increase our stake in financing the union, while expediting actions on modalities towards reducing dependence on international partners for funds, he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">NAN recalls that at the AU Assembly meeting in Malabo, the Nigeria delegation had recommended an expeditious conclusion of work on the recommendations of the President Olusegun Obasanjo panel on the alternative sources of funding the AU.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The proposal to urgently widen the revenue base of the union by Nigeria was seconded by Senegal and Rwanda.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The report of the Obasanjo panel was adopted since May 2013 and some of their recommendations to raise additional funds for the AU included hospitality tax on hotel bookings and tax on airline tickets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A Nigerian diplomat, familiar with the recommendations, told NAN that there are clear indications that some countries are out to kill the process and recommendations of the Obasanjo panel for their perceived national interests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some countries that are dependent on tourism had shown limited interest on some of the key recommendations of the panel, the diplomat added. (NAN)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">SOURCE:LEADERSHIP </span></div>

Nigeria To Contribute $17m To AU Budget In 2015

Nigeria is to contribute 16.96 million dollars to the 522 million-dollar African Union (AU) budget for 2015 as adopted in Malabo on Friday...

1:13 pm

We contributed $44bn to FG’s coffers between 2009 and 2013

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px;">Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited has said the company contributed about $44bn to the Federal Government’s coffers between 2009 and 2013. He also claimed the Federal Government received about 95 per cent of the revenue after costs from the SPDC Joint Venture, including income from its majority shareholding through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Sunmonu said these while addressing journalists on the company’s activities as of April 2014, stating that the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company of Nigeria Limited, which operates in deep waters, also contributed in excess of $26bn to the government within the five-year period. According to reports from Punch, in 2013 alone, Shell-operated ventures in the country produced an average of 693,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.</span><br style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px;" /><i><br /></i></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 16px;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"About 535,000boe/d of the volume, he explained, came from SPDC JV, while SNEPCo accounted for the balance of 158,000boe/d. As part of measures to check oil theft, he said the company had given out 600 surveillance contracts to protect its over 6,000-kilometre pipeline network, with about 9,000 people employed for that purpose. Sunmonu, however, said that the deployment of appropriate technologies was not a sufficient requirement in addressing pipeline vandalism and oil theft, adding that an effective response arrangement by the Joint Task Force remained critical to checking the menace. He called on the Federal Government to take more seriously the issue of security, especially as it related to oil and gas assets in the country. On gas flaring, he said the SPDC had reduced the incidence from its facilities by about 75 per cent between 2003 and 2012, and that flaring intensity (the amount of gas flared per barrel of oil produced) had been brought down by around 60 per cent over the same period."</span></i></span><br style="color: #444444; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px;" /><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">-TODAY</span>

We contributed $44bn to FG’s coffers between 2009 and 2013

Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited has said the company contributed about $44bn to t...

2:42 pm

Twitter's COO Has Resigned

<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*OJUJU HODERIN*</span><br />
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<img alt="Ali" height="359" src="http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE0LzA2LzEyLzdhL0FsaS5jZjBiYy5qcGcKcAl0aHVtYgk5NTB4NTM0IwplCWpwZw/e0608e65/c5a/Ali.jpg" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Twitter COO Ali Rowghani has resigned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rowghani's move comes after <em>><a href="http://recode.net/2014/06/11/twitter-mulling-shake-up-of-top-execs-including-coo-ali-rowghani/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Re/code</a></em> ran a story Wednesday night speculating that there would be a "shake-up" among Twitter's top execs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Goodbye Twitter. It's been an amazing ride, and I will cherish the memories.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">— Ali Rowghani (@ROWGHANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ROWGHANI/statuses/477074205591089153">June 12, 2014</a></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/ROWGHANI">@ROWGHANI</a> Thank you for being an incredible executive & partner. Twitter could not have succeeded without you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">— dick costolo (@dickc) <a href="https://twitter.com/dickc/statuses/477074496315072512">June 12, 2014</a></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">More to come.</span></span><br />
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Twitter's COO Has Resigned

*OJUJU HODERIN* Twitter COO Ali Rowghani has resigned. Rowghani's move comes after > Re/code ran a story Wednesday night spec...

2:35 pm