C&I Leasing Plc, a foremost brand for finance leases and other ancillary services in Nigeria, on Tuesday, listed its N600 million 18.25 percent Fixed Rate Bond on the platform of FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange (FMDQ).
The C&I Leasing bond listing comes barely a week into the formal admittance of the N16.79 billion UACN Property Development Company plc Commercial Paper (CP) on FMDQ platform.
In line with FMDQ objective of promoting an efficient and well regulated market, which will attract and retain both domestic and foreign investors, improve price discovery and transparency for issuers, dealers, regulators and the general public, the Bond shall also be included on the FMDQ-Bloomberg E-Bond Trading System (E-Bond).
FMDQ played host to the Issuer (C&I Leasing plc) as well as the sponsor of the Bond on FMDQ, the Registration Member (Listings), WSTC Financial Services Limited, represented by Tofarati Agusto, managing director/CEO, among others, to a prestigious listing ceremony.
Tumi Sekoni, vice president/divisional head, marketing and business development, FMDQ, said: “FMDQ’s listing service had been tailored to provide, among others, a unique opportunity for issuers to raise the profiles of their issues and access a deep pool of capital, thereby meeting their long-term funding needs even as the Nigerian debt capital market becomes aligned with international best practices and standards.”
She further stipulated that the Exchange would provide continuous information disclosure on the C&I Leasing Bond, including price/value data and detailed issuers’/issues information, to stakeholders via the ‘Listings and Quotations’ page on the FMDQ website.
Andrew Otike-Odibi, managing director, C&I Leasing, said at the bond listing ceremony that, “The current operating environment presents both opportunities and challenges, and as a leading player in the support services industry, an offer of this nature will provide additional capital to enable us expand our marine business operations, repay existing credit facilities and meet working capital obligations which will ultimately lead to more profitability and growth in market share guided by a robust risk management framework and strong corporate governance.”
He added: “We remain committed and focused on the fundamentals of our business which are efficiency and service delivery whilst intensifying efforts to boost our revenue generating profile from our other businesses and reduce credit exposures to volatile segments of the market.”
Following the presentation of the listings scroll to the Registration Member (Listings), Agusto stated, “Coincidentally, C&I Leasing plc and WSTC Financial Services Limited were pioneer Finance Houses as both commenced operations in 1991 and were amongst a handful of those that survived the monumental crash of the industry in 1993. It is to the credit of the Board and Management of C&I that the company very early subjected itself to the discipline of public listing and evolved to be a preeminent leasing company in Nigeria. The growth of C&I is the result of focused and disciplined management and the FMDQ platform has deepened its access to the Financial Market. We congratulate FMDQ and C&I on this historic listing.”
The Bond listing ceremony included among others the signing of the FMDQ Bond Listings Register, presentation of the FMDQ Bond Listing Certificate, and the autographing of the FMDQ Bond Listing Wall of Fame.
FMDQ, through the concerted efforts of its varied stakeholders, has continued to facilitate growth and development in the Nigerian financial market, with specific focus on the debt capital market, and the Nigerian economy at large. The Nigerian debt capital market continues to make essential strides towards its development and today’s listing of the Bond on FMDQ marks another milestone in this certain development.
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