Menu

The UACN Property Development Company (UPDC), a Nigerian real estate company, has listed a N16.79 billion commercial paper on the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, an over-the-counter market operator for fixed income securities.

According to a statement released on Monday, Hakeem Ogunniran, UPDC’s Managing Director, said the commercial paper issuance will afford the company a better opportunity to successfully diversify its short-term funding sources at a 25 percent reduced cost.

Bola Onadele, FMDQ’s Managing Director/CEO, said the quotation of UPDC’s commercial paper was evidence of the positive progression in the Nigerian commercial paper market, serving to instill confidence in the possibilities of the Nigerian financial market.

The securities exchange said the listing was done after UPDC met all the requirements for the N16.79 billion commercial paper, which represents series 1 under the company’s N24 billion commercial paper issuance programme.
 
In May this year, Larry Ettah, UPDC’s Chairman and CEO of UAC of Nigeria, said the real estate company planned to raise additional capital to “boost business” in order to take advantage of untapped potentials in the residential category and numerous opportunities in the retail, commercial, and industrial segments of the market in the near term.
 
Also speaking at the listing ceremony, Kayode Akinkugbe, Chairman of FBN Capital, said the success of UPDC’s commercial paper is an affirmation of the growth of the commercial paper market in recent years. “We are indeed pleased to have partnered with UPDC in establishing its inaugural CP Programme and achieving the significant oversubscription recorded at its debut launch,” Akinkugbe said.

FBN Capital and Coronation Merchant Bank served as lead arrangers of the UPDC commercial paper, which has received an A- (investment grade) rating from Agusto and Co.