BoI Wins Best Development Bank, Financial Institution Syndicated Loan Awards

Nume Ekeghe

The key capital-raising transactions of the Bank of Industry (BOI) from the international financial market, which fueled its sterling financial performance in 2022, are being recognized with local and international awards.

The bank’s total assets have grown by an impressive 248 per cent between 2016 and 2022, reaching N1.71trillion by the end of 2021 and closing at N2.38trillion as of December 2022.

For these, the bank has won: The Best Financial Institution Syndicated Loan in EMEA (Bank of Industry’s €1Billion Loan) and The Best Financial Institution Bond in Africa (Bank of Industry’s €700Million debut 144a/Regs Senior Issuance, later increased to €750Million) at the EMEA Finance Achievement Awards For 2022 in June 2023. And The Best Development Bank of the Year-Africa and The Best Commitment to ESG Principles-Nigeria at the International Banker, 2023 Banking Awards held in London, United Kingdom in May, 2023.

The International Banker Awards 2023 was established to recognise top-ranking individuals and organisations setting new benchmarks for performance and pushing the boundaries within the financial industry.

Similarly, EMEA Finance is a leading finance magazine with a vision to be ‘the independent voice’ – one that speaks at the highest level of integrity and journalistic ethics – for the financial community, its customers, and suppliers across the EMEA region.

Commenting on the awards, the Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Kayode Pitan said, the recognitions, 20 of them in the last six years, “Do not only show a demonstration of commitment and innovativeness that has improved the bank’s fortunes, but also serve as positive reinforcement for more work.”

Under Pitan, from 2017 to date, BOI has raised over $5 billion from the international financial markets.

The first of the transactions was a $750 Million syndication concluded in 2017 with the support of Afreximbank and a team of international Financial Institutions (now fully paid off). 

The second and third were the Euro 1Billion syndication closed in March 2020 and another $1Billion syndication that closed in December 2020 (to be fully paid off by December 2023).

The bank’s maiden Eurobond of €750 million, concluded in February 2022 was the fourth transaction. This transaction marked the first of its kind in several ways to the bank, Nigeria and Africa. This deal was the bank’s first Eurobond transaction and the first Euro-denominated Eurobond transaction in Nigeria. The transaction was also the first Eurobond transaction covered by Nigeria’s sovereign guarantee. It represents a benchmark for other prospective issuers from the African continent. It earned the bank the Agency Bond Deal of the Year award at the 2023 Awards event of the Bonds, Loans and ESG Capital Markets in Cape Town, South Africa and has just earned one of the awards listed above.

The fifth capital raising transaction was the €1 billion guaranteed senior loan facility concluded in August of 2022. This deal also represents the first of its kind, by any Nigerian financial institution, both in terms of its size and structure.