Guinness Nigeria establishes N10billion commercial paper programme

Guinness Nigeria Plc, the nation’s leading brewer, has today announced that it will be establishing a 10 Billion Commercial Paper (“CP”) programme today, 29^th April 2015, with the view to launching its inaugural CP issue under the programme on or before Friday, 8^th May 2015. 

The announcement was made at the signing ceremony which held at the company’s headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos.

MD/CEO Guinness Nigeria Plc. John O’Keeffe, , MD/CEO FMDQ OTC Plc. Bola Onadele; Finance and Strategy Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc. Mr. Ron Plumridge; and, Sumbo Akintola, Partner, Aluko and Oyebode at the N10billion Commercial Paper signing ceremony held at Guinness Nigeria Headquarters on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.

 “We are very pleased with the successful launch of this Commercial Paper programme for Guinness Nigeria Plc and the support received from our advisors to get us to this point. This will be the first corporate CP programme to be established in recent times, following the new CBN guidelines coming into effect, and we are pleased to be the first company to take advantage of this opportunity. We look forward to a robust uptake of this inaugural issuance imminently, whilst retaining the flexibility offered by the programme to tap into the CP market again in the nearest future”, said Mr. John O’Keeffe, the Managing Director/CEO of Guinness Nigeria while speaking at the signing ceremony.

Witnessing the signing ceremony were representatives of the transaction advisors which include Stanbic-IBTC Capital Limited and Standard Chartered Securities Nigeria Limited as Joint Arrangers, Aluko & Oyebode as Legal Counsel, KPMG as Auditors to the Issuer, and Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited as Issuing Calculation and Paying Agent. Also in attendance were officials of FMDQ OTC, a Securities and Exchange Commission licensed over-the-counter market operator for fixed income securities.

Also speaking at the event, Kobby Bentsi-Enchill, Head - Debt Capital Markets, of Stanbic IBTC Capital stated that Guinness Nigeria has shown industry leadership in taking up the CP. He declared:

Finance and Strategy Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc. Mr. Ron Plumridge; Head, Debt Capital Markets,  FMDQ OCT Plc. Mr. Kobi Bentsi-Enchill;  MD/CEO Guinness Nigeria Plc. John O’Keeffe; and, Executive Director, Corporate and Institutional Clients, Standard Chartered Bank Oluremi Oyindasola Oni at the N10billion Commercial Paper signing ceremony

“This transaction is a unique milestone event, and represents the first CP Programme to be established by a non-financial institution corporate issuer following the new guidelines on commercial paper from the Central Bank of Nigeria, published in 2009. In that regard, Guinness Nigeria has again clearly demonstrated its innovative approach towards executing the company’s financing strategy, in an increasingly competitive market environment. We at Stanbic IBTC are also proud to have partnered with Guinness on this landmark achievement”

Guinness Nigeria is a part of Diageo, a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands across beer, spirits and wine categories.  These brands include Johnnie Walker, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness. Guinness Nigeria is the manufacturer of recognised brands like Malta Guinness, Harp, Snapp and Orijin.