Parthian Partners Limited has announced the successful issuance of its debut NGN10 billion 3-year Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Short-term Bond. The issuance represents the first short-term bond under the FMDQ Securities Exchange short-term bond framework and the first bond by an Inter-dealer broker in the Nigerian capital market. The bond issuance also follows the successful redemption of Parthian’s maiden N20 billion Commercial Paper Issuance in November/December 2021. The fully subscribed bond, issued at coupon rate of 13.50%, has been enjoying solid interest from a wide spectrum of institutional investors.
The success of the issuance is further corroborated by Parthian Partners’ investment grade ratings, Bbb (stable outlook) and BBB+ (stable outlook) by Agusto & Co and DataPro, respectively, which highlight the Company’s good funding profile, improving profitability, asset quality, support from the owners and strong capitalisation.
The Bonds, listed on the FMDQ Exchange, had Renaissance Capital as Lead Issuing House and Credit Rating Adviser, with CardinalStone Partners, Constant Capital and SCM Capital as Joint Issuing Houses, while PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG are acting as Reporting Accountants and Auditor, respectively. Funmi Roberts & Co. are Solicitors to the Transaction.
Parthian intends to utilize the net proceeds of the bond issuance to increase liquidity in the Nigerian debt market by discounting Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) promissory notes and supporting the FGN bond market. According to the company’s CFO, Olayinka Arewa, “Being Nigeria’s pioneer interdealer broker comes with the arduous responsibility of blazing the trail in providing liquidity in the fixed income market – one which Parthian Partners has embraced, and for which we have constantly sought innovative ways to maintain a high standard. We are the first IDB to issue a bond of this size and we plan on facilitating infrastructure development across the country by investing in FGN Promissory notes and the FGN Bond market. We recognise the efforts of the investor community in ensuring the success of this bond issuance and commit to upholding their confidence in us as we deliver on our strategic growth objectives,” he said.
Also speaking on the transaction, CEO of Renaissance Capital, Nigeria, Samuel Sule stated, “Parthian Partners has once again proved its leading position in the interdealer broker segment of our domestic financial markets. We are pleased to act as the Lead Issuing House on the first bond issue from a pure-play interdealer broker in the domestic capital markets and the first short-term bond under the FMDQ Securities Exchange framework. The transaction has broad support from the domestic investor base highlighting the robust structure of the instrument, credit positioning and positive ratings of the Company. Renaissance Capital remains committed to African capital markets and we look forward to further solving our clients’ needs and deepening our domestic capital markets.”
Parthian Partners Limited is Nigeria’s first interdealer broker, licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide brokerage services to market dealers and investors, including pension fund administrators, fund managers, banks, and international financial institutions. Also a member of the FMDQ Exchange, the company primarily facilitates trading in federal government, state government and corporate fixed income securities. From 2013 to date, Parthian Partners has facilitated over N5 trillion in FGN bonds and treasury bill trades, and over $1.2 billion in Eurobond transactions.
