Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer Advises Nigeria on the First Tradeable Diaspora Bonds to Be SEC Registered and Listed in London

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have advised the Federal Republic of Nigeria on its debut offering of diaspora bonds worth $300m at a coupon rate of 5.625 per cent per annum for a tenor of five years.

The offering represents the first time a sovereign has issued tradeable, registered bonds that are approved for distribution to retail investors in the UK and US. Nigeria is the second country in sub-Saharan Africa to register bonds with the SEC.

The joint lead managers were Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Standard Bank of South Africa, First Bank of Nigeria and United Bank for Africa.

The Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer team included partner Whitney Debevoise and associates Carlos Pelaez and Brian Bombassaro in the United States and partner Jeremy Willcocks and associate Benjamin Kieft in London.

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer has served as counsel in international sovereign bond transactions for over 30 years for issuers such as the Republics of Azerbaijan, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Moldova, Pakistan, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen, the State of Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary among others.

This announcement is of a completed transaction and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the US or UK.