AfDB priced 1.125% US$ 1.0 Billion Benchmark due 4 March 2019

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — African Development Bank (AfDB), has successfully priced a US$1 billion 1.125% 3-year USD Global benchmark due on 4th March 2019. This transaction is AfDB’s first US$ Global benchmark outing of 2016, following a successful inaugural US$ 650 million Floating Rate Note (FRN) issued at the end of January.

The Bank, is taking advantage of a clear issuance window after a period of relative market stability, the mandate for a Global US$1 billion (“no grow”) benchmark transaction was announced on Tuesday 23rd February at 2 pm London time, with initial price thoughts in the mid-swaps +‘high twenties’ region.

Given AfDB’s strong liquidity position, the deal size was capped at a maximum of US$1 billion from the outset. After an hour, books exceeded USD 850 million for the “no grow” transaction. Interest in the transaction from extremely high quality buy-and-hold accounts continued to develop strongly, and at the US open the spread was set at MS+29 bps, with books in excess of US$1.2 billion, before closing at 2:30 pm London over US$1.3 billion. Pricing took place in the London afternoon from a reference of MS+29 bps, equivalent to UST 0.750% due 15 February 2019 + 29.5 bps.

Almost 40 investors were involved and the order book was of extremely high quality, with Central Banks and Official Institutions (81%) taking the bulk of the transaction, the highest seen on a US dollar SA deal this year. Final distribution figures highlight AfDB’s strong penetration across different regions and Americas (37%) and EMEA (51%) were particularly well represented. 

Source: AfDB website