Category: ICT

Airtel signs $500million loan facility to partially refinance €750million Euro dominated bond.

Chidi Emenike Leave a comment

Airtel Africa Plc has announced the successful signing of a new $500million credit facility with a consortium of banks, in a bid to partially refinance its €750million Euro dominated bond due 20th of May, 2021.

This is according to a disclosure signed by the Group Company’s Secretary, Simon O’Hara and seen by Nairametrics.

According to the disclosure, the new facility consists of a combination of a revolving credit facility and term loans with tenor of up to 4 years. It also has prepayment flexibilities that will enable the Group to maximize the efficiency of its capital structure with the free cash flows and cash receipts expected over the next 12 months.

The Group also noted that while the new loan will be used to refinance its €750million bond commitments which translate to about (c. $880 million), the remaining balance of the Euro dominated bond will be repaid with existing Group cash to reduce gross debt and associated interest charges.

According to the notice, the banks which participated in the facility include a diverse group of existing global relationship banks, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citibank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank and two Indian relationship banks, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

What you should know:

  • Airtel Africa had earlier announced an agreement with Mastercard, for the latter to invest $100 million in its Mobile Commerce BV (Airtel Mobile Commerce BV).
  • On the other hand, the Group in about a month ago announced that it reached an agreement with Helios Tower Plc to sell its (Airtel) telecommunications tower companies in Madagascar and Malawi for a gross value of about $93.7million.

Chams Plc announces the appointment of Patricia Duru as new CFO

Chidi Emenike Leave a comment

The Board of Directors of Chams Plc has announced the appointment of Mrs Patricia Duru as the new Group Chief Financial Officer of the company effective from 1st of April, 2021.

This is according to a disclosure signed by the company’s secretary, Yetunde Emmanuel and sent to the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (NGX Group).

As part of her responsibilities, Patricia will support the Board in driving the Group’s strategic vision and harnessing greater wealth building opportunities for shareholders.

Profile

Patricia is a financial management and business leader with over 12 years of experience in driving business growth.  Prior to joining Chams Plc, she served as the Chief Financial Officer of Interconnect Clearinghouse Nigeria Limited where she played a prominent role in the financial growth of the business.

Patricia is an alumna of the University of Uyo and University of Benin where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and an MBA in Finance respectively. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), an Associate of the Chartered Global Management Accountants and Chartered Management Accountants (UK), amongst others.

What you should know:

  • Chams Plc provides enterprise technology solutions for identity management and transactions payments to the public and private sectors in Nigeria.

See link to the recent announcement.

MTN Nigeria raises N73.5 billion from CP Issuance to finance operations.

Chidi Emenike Leave a comment

MTN Nigeria Plc has raised a total of N73.5 billion through its Series III and Series IV CP Issuance Programme, in a bid to meet its working capital requirements and for general corporate purposes.

This is according to a disclosure issued by the telecommunication giants and signed by its secretary, Uto Ukpanah, as seen by Nairametrics.

The company revealed that as part of its strategy in diversifying its financing sources, it obtained the approval of FMDQ Securities Exchange in November 2020 to increase its CP programme from N100 billion to N200 billion. This is sequel to the success recorded in its N100 billion inaugural Series I and Series II CP Issuances in June 2020, which have been redeemed.

On the other hand, the telecommunications giant also revealed that the company has obtained the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a Bond Issuance Programme. Sequel to this, the company will issue a 7-Year Series I fixed rate bond under a debut N200 billion bond issuance programme.

What you should know:

  • The book build for the series III and series IV CP Issuances commenced on 11th of March, 2021 and closed on 19th of March, 2021.
  • The series III and series IV CP cleared at a discount rate of 6.7652% and 7.5546% respectively.
  • A total of N19, 765,447,000 was raised through series III CP Issuance, while series IV CP Issuance generated a total of N53, 742,807,000.
  • Collectively a total of N73, 508,254,000 was raised through the issuance of both series- series III and series IV.

For more information about the disclosure, click HERE.

eTranzact International Plc posts N1.9 billion loss in FY 2020.

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eTranzact International Plc released its full-year results for the year ended 31st December 2020.

  • Revenue for the year was N22.7 billion. (-9.8% YoY)
  • The cost of sales was N21.58 billion. (-6.9% YoY)
  • An operating loss of N2.14 billion was incurred.
  • Administrative expenses was N1.11 billion (+34.45% YoY)
  • A loss after tax of N1.9 billion was incurred.
  • Loss per share of 45 kobo.
  • No dividend announcement was made.

See link to results.

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Airtel records massive quarterly revenue growth from mobile money operations

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Airtel Africa Plc released its third-quarter results for the period ending December 2020

  • Revenues of $1 billion (+17.2%)
  • Voice revenue of $565 million (+11.8%)
  • Data revenue $294 million (+20.8%)
  • Mobile money of $110 million (+34%)
  • Customer base up 11.0% to 118.9 million, with increased penetration across mobile data (customer base up 23.5%)
    and mobile money services (customer base up 29.0%). 2.5 million customers were added in Q3’21.
  • Ebitda of $485 (+21.7%)
  • Profit after tax $116 million (+13.1%)
  • 9 months profits was however down 21% to N261 million.
  • Q3 EPS of 2 cents (+17.8%)
  • On  Covid-19, the company says no impact – “Finally, while the Covid-19 pandemic has had little impact on our most recent quarter, we remain vigilant about the recent news flow around new strains of the virus and further actions by governments to minimise contagion in our countries of operation.”

See link to results.