Syndications
In achieving this, the team leverages two key strengths: one being its strong arranging and structuring capabilities and the other being its diverse relationships and distribution capabilities. Furthermore, leveraging on our strong credit rating and preferred creditor status in member countries, the Syndications unit constantly develops and deploys several common and new innovative syndication products and structures – such as the A/B loan, Parallel Loan, Partnership-Loans(P-Loans), Unfunded Risk Participations and A/B-Bonds – to mobilise significant pools of capital from various funding sources. These products enable us to minimise our headroom and capital constraints as well as attract and channel new sources of capital into Africa, hence addressing the significant infrastructure deficit. In addition to its core mandate of mobilising funded participations, the unit also mobilises unfunded participations using insurance products as part of its distribution strategy.
Our syndications partners include commercial banks, institutional investors, developmental financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies among others.
Services
Our arranging services are focused mainly on mobilising capital into projects that fall within AFC’s key focus sectors: Natural Resources, Power, Heavy Industry, Transport & Logistics, Telecom Infrastructure, Sovereign Lending and Financial Institutions Lending. The team arranges third-party financing under one of the following options:
Notable initiatives and projects
- AFC Syndications successfully mobilised funded and unfunded participations in our role as a Mandated Lead Arranger for a long-term facility of EUR364.5 million to the Government of Cote d’Ivoire to fund critical roads infrastructure in the country
- Successfully mobilised funded participation, through our inaugural A/B Bond structure in a syndicated facility to the Government of Cote d’Ivoire
- Successfully mobilised US$75 million funded participation, through the A/B Loan structure, as one of the Mandated Lead Arrangers in the US$1.3 billion syndicated facility to the Government of Tanzania
- Successfully mobilised unfunded participations as one of the Mandated Lead Arrangers in the US$1 billion syndicated facility to the Bank of Industry
- Successfully arranged and acted as sole Mandated Lead Arranger to a dual-currency and dual-tenor syndicated financing package totalling EUR578 million to Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR), the sole crude oil refinery in Côte d'Ivoire and the largest crude oil refinery in West Africa. AFC Syndications team mobilised a significant portion of the financing by deploying various syndication structures such as its partnership loans, parallel loans, and unfunded risk participations in partnership with different types of investors including commercial banks, insurance companies and development finance institutions
- Successfully arranged and syndicated a senior debt facility for the development of a container and multipurpose terminal at the Port of Takoradi in Ghana
- Successfully syndicated funded participations under a US$95 million senior debt facility provided to finance supply of equipment to a leading telecoms company in Nigeria
Wola Asase – Senior Vice President, Head of Syndications
Wola is Head of Syndications at AFC. Prior to joining us he was a Syndications Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, where he led EMEA team’s Africa coverage and focused primarily on mobilising debt financing for project and corporate finance transactions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
