SEC, Coleman Cables sign 50bn bond
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has signed N50 billion bond with Coleman Wires and Cables, West Africa’s largest cable manufacturer.
Its Managing Director, Mr George Onafowokan, at the signing ceremony held in Lagos on Saturday, said that the bond was fundamental to giving an option of the company’s portfolio of funding.
“When we looked at all the other options, going through this methodology on finance is also better for our portfolio on financial mix.
“Also, the way you get your average cost down is by trying to get a different set of portfolios of financial mix and instruments.
“So going the direction of the bond, getting rated, getting issued analysis and advisory companies together was a key fundamental to giving us an option on our portfolio of funding,” he said.
Onafowokan said that the company had commenced production of some major cables including marine and transmission cables which enabled it break barrier in terms of importation of cables.
He said that the company had acquired the technology and capabilities to manufacture various cables that were previously imported with huge foreign currencies.
According to him, Coleman has looked at the business, holistically and wants to fill the gaps in Nigeria, West Africa and the entire African continent.
“For us, investment has already started.
“The future of the business is all about development, capacity building in areas looking at our fiber optic industry that we are now in, oil and gas where we are doing marine cable, high voltage, transmission, it is not enough yet.
“What we have done is to break barrier of importation of all these cables,” he said.
In his remarks, an official with Coronation Merchants Bank, Mr Suru Daniels, said Coleman has established an opportunity to diversify its funding through a bond.
Daniels said: “For a company that has invested significantly in manufacturing space in Nigeria, there is always a need to have capital and establish a N50 billion programme that helps Coleman to increase the mix of capital that it has access to.
“One of the good things about this is that anytime within the next three years, Coleman is able to access the capital market obviously at a preferred interest rate.
“What this does for both Coleman and the market is that the company’s capacity utilisation can be optimised, because it is not likely to be hindered by working capital markey related challenges.”
