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On Tuesday 18 January 2022, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), rated AA (S&P)/AA (Fitch) launched a new GBP 500 million fixed-rate 3.5-year bond issue due 18 June 2025.
Key aspects of the transaction:
This is the second syndicated benchmark issue in 2022 for AFD. This transaction marks a successful return to the sterling market for AFD, whose last issue in this market was priced in 2015. The transaction demonstrates AFD's ability to promote its signature, to finance itself in multiple formats and to diversify its investor base.
This 500 million British Pounds transaction offers a final spread of 43 basis points over the UK Treasury's benchmark curve, equivalent to an actuarial yield of 1.294% (s.a.) and a price of 99.843%.
The joint lead managers for this transaction are Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.
Execution and distribution:
The mandate for this new transaction was announced at 16.00 (Paris) on Monday 17 January. The order book officially opened the following morning at 9.28 (Paris), with an indicative spread of 45 basis points above the UK Treasury's reference curve.
At 11.25 (Paris), the order book exceeded 470 million British pounds, allowing AFD to set the final spread for the transaction at 43 basis points above the UK Treasury's benchmark curve.
The order book continued to grow throughout the morning and finally exceeded 650 million British pounds. The final terms were announced at 13.09 (Paris) with the final amount of the issue fixed at 500 million British pounds.
The new issue was priced at 15.04 (Paris) with a coupon of 1.25% and an actuarial yield of 1.294% (a.s.).
Fund Managers and Central Banks & Official Institutions accounted for the majority of the distribution (42% and 34% respectively), followed by Banks (23%). Demand came mainly from UK domestic investors (53%), followed by Europe (33%), America (10%) and Asia (4%).
“This transaction marks AFD's return to the GBP market and we are delighted with the response and support from investors. Our objective is to be recurrent in this market as we are in other currencies and thus to meet investors' expectations in a sustainable manner as part of our refinancing program.” Thibaut Makarovsky, Head of Funding and Market Operations
Transaction summary:
- Issuer : Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
- Ratings : AA/AA (Stable/Negative) S&P/Fitch
- Size of the transaction : 500 million British pounds
- Settlement Date : 25 January 2022 (T+5)
- Maturity Date : 18 June 2025
- Reoffer Price : 99.843%
- Coupon : 1.25%, annual, ACT/ACT ICMA
- Reoffer Yield : 1.294%
- Reoffer Spread : 43 basis points
- Denomination : GBP 200k + GBP 200k
- Listing : Euronext Paris, French law
- Joint Lead Managers : Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, HSBC
Allocation Breakdown:
Contact: _AFD_Funding@afd.fr
Find out more: Investors page