| Tue 13 Jan 2009, 13:13 | | ABL / ABLP - African Bank Investments Limited - African Bank raises R350 |
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ABL ABLP
ABL
ABL / ABLP - African Bank Investments Limited - African Bank raises R350
million, subordinated tier II capital from the international finance
corporation.
African Bank Investments Limited
(Registration Number 1946/021193/06)
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Registered bank controlling company)
Ordinary Share Code: ABL ISIN: ZAE000030060
Preference Share Code: ABLP ISIN: ZAE000065215
("ABIL" or "the Company")
AFRICAN BANK RAISES R350 MILLION, SUBORDINATED TIER II CAPITAL FROM THE
INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION.
African Bank Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of African Bank Investments
Limited, is pleased to announce that it has raised a R350 million subordinated
Tier II capital qualifying loan from the International Finance Corporation
("IFC"), a member of the World Bank Group.
African Bank provides its clients, who are largely in the low-middle-income
market, with unsecured credit, in excess of 50% of which is applied towards
incremental housing and education related purposes. As such, IFC`s loan will
facilitate deeper access for African Bank`s clients to incremental housing and
education related loans.
The instrument, which has a final maturity of 12 years, is callable by African
Bank after 7 years. The pricing of the loan for the initial 7 year non-callable
period, after being fully hedged via a cross currency swap, translates into 3mth
JIBAR plus 365bps. In line with its existing risk management strategy, African
Bank has hedged this floating rate exposure, via an interest rate swap,
resulting in an effective 11.6% nacq fixed rate for the duration of the loan.
Saleem Karimjee, IFC Country Manager for Southern Africa, said "Improving access
to finance is an important part of IFC`s strategy to strengthen the private
sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. IFC is committed to supporting strong financial
institutions that continue to bring financial services to more people and places
amid the recent turmoil in global markets."
David Woollam, CEO of African Bank, said "This transaction represents an
important step in African Bank`s long-term capital management and funding
programme, which will further optimise the weighted average cost of capital of
the Bank, and widen our universe of funders, thereby creating additional impetus
to our key strategic objectives of growing the business to scale and bringing
down the cost of credit to our clients."
For further information please contact David Woollam on (011) 256 9234 or Nga
Kugotsi on (011) 256 9242.
Midrand
13 January 2009
Sponsor
RAND MERCHANT BANK (A division of FirstRand Bank Limited)
Date: 13/01/2009 13:13:01 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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