10 | The Lion King
United Bank for Africa:
Facilitating big ticket
transactions on the continent
A
frica’s rising economic power
is getting significant financial
support from one of its biggest
banks, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc.
A series of big ticket transactions has
been engineered by the bank either
as lead arranger, co-arranger or major
lending partner showing its strong finan-
cial muscle on the continent.
The deals, which cut across the major
economic sectors of telecoms, power,
oil and gas indicates the bank’s clear
intention to play big in the key sectors
of the economy and ties in with the
bank’s announced intent to dominate
the African banking space. UBA has
subsidiaries in 18 African countries
outside Nigeria.
“We firmly believe that the effect
of these deals will have a sustained
impact on our growth and business”
said Phillips Oduoza, Group CEO, UBA
plc. He assured that UBA remains
focused on its “aspirations of being the
leading financial services institution in
Africa.”
POWER
UBA played a key role in Nigeria’s
power sector privatization.
Some of the major deals include:
KANN Utility $122 Million Acquisition
Deal
UBA was the as Mandated Lead
Arranger, underwriting the entire facility
of $122m (N20bn) for Kann Utilities’
acquisition of the Abuja Electricity
Distribution Company to finance the
payment of the 75% acquisition of 60%
equity stake in Abuja Electricity Distribu-
tion Company.
Transcorp’s acquisition of Ughelli Power
Limited
UBA was the Lead arranger taking up
$120m (N19.44bn) of the financing in
respect of Transcorp’s acquisition of
Ughelli Power Plant. The Ughelli Power
Plant has a capacity of 360MW of
electricity with plans by its new inves-
tors, to triple its capacity to 1000MW
over the next 3 to 5 years.
Aura Energy Acquisition of Jos Distribu-
tion Company
UBA acted as Mandated Lead Arranger
and Sole Underwriter for Aura Energy’s
acquisition of Jos Electricity Distribution
Company, raising N9.6 billion to finance
the payment of 75% of Aura’s 60%
equity stake in Jos Electricity Distribution
Company.
Shiroro Hydroelectric Power Plc
UBA successfully arranged debt financ-
ing of US$68m as well as secured equity
investment from a strategic and techni-
cal investors for the acquisition of the
Shiroro Hydroelectric Power Plc by North
Milestones
South Power Company Limited.
USD 35 Million Acquisition of Ibadan
and Yola Distribution Companies
UBA actively participated in the
$35 million syndicated financing for
Integrated Energy Distribution and
Marketing Limited for the acquisi-
tion of Ibadan and Yola Distribution
Companies.
OIL & GAS
Dangote’s $3.3 billion Petrochemical
Deal
UBA Plc joined 11 other banks to
arrange a $3.3billion dollar loan deal
for Dangote Industries Ltd owned by
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.
The $3.3 billion finance will facilitate the
building of the biggest petroleum oil
refinery as well as a petrochemical and
fertilizer plant in Nigeria. The proposed
largest refinery in Africa is expected
to have a capacity of refining 400,000
barrels of crude oil per day and turn
Nigeria into a petroleum exporter.
Orion Oil Limited $500 million deal
UBA also acted as the co-arranging
bank in a $500m syndicated loan deal
for Orion Oil Limited. The US$500m will
be utilised for the prepayment of crude
oil cargos to be supplied by Société
Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (The
National Oil Company of the Repub-
lic of Congo). The facility comprises
a United States dollar-denominated
$342m tranche and a XAF-denomi-
nated $158m tranche. This transaction
was the largest loan syndication
