Nigeria’s integrated Food and Agro-allied giant, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, has concluded plans to issue a bond within the next two months as part of a N70bn ($184m) programme to re-finance existing debt.
Its Group Chief Finance Officer, Anders Kristiansson, disclosed this on Monday.
Kristiansson said the move was aimed at taking advantage of low money market rates, adding that Flour Mills had taken proactive measures to conserve cash in response to the Coronavirus Disease economic crisis.
The flour and pasta maker sold N30bn in a commercial paper last April as part of measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on its business.
“We have a N70bn bond programme. We are looking to tap into the market again given the low-interest-rate environment.
“We anticipate coming to the market to re-finance some of our existing debt by bringing a bond to the market. We anticipate doing that in the next two months,” Kristiansson said.
The multinational firm, which just released its first-quarter financial statement, revealed that it recorded some steady growth in its food and agro-businesses as its revenue grew by 15 per cent to N154.6bn from N134.7bn.
The profit after tax grew by 17 per cent to N4.9bn from N4.2bn.
The company has a net debt profile of about N75.8bn in the first quarter.
The yields on short-term bills and bonds have fallen below six per cent from the double digits due to excess liquidity in the money market, as foreign investors are pulling out their funds and dumping assets to repatriate funds.
