The dormant primary equities segment of the Nigerian capital market has prompted listed companies; to rely on the bond market for fund raising as six Nigerian companies issued corporate bonds worth N246.28 billion; in order to improve their balance sheet and scale up their operations during the half-year (H1) ended June 30, 2022.
The Nigerian equities market has been on a continuous nose-dive with occasional unsuccessful recovery attempts since the end of March 2007 till 2020 when the performing index soared by 50%; making Nigerian stock the best performing globally.
For quite a while now, prices of shares have been falling and many investors are still counting their losses. Consequently, most companies now resort to alternative means of raising capital, exploring opportunities in the bond market while shunning equities.
For instance, Dangote Cement raised N116 billion from the largest corporate bond issuance in the history of the Nigerian capital market. The firm announced it has completed the issuance of N116 billion series 2 fixed rate senior unsecured bonds; under its N300 billion multi-instrument issuance programme.
-Guardian.