African Development Bank (AfDB) entered the Sustainable Securities Market Index by issuing a USD 3 billion issuance on the London stock exchange, according to Jornal Mercado, which quotes a note from the financial institution as saying.
“We are proud to announce that our first placement on the London Stock Exchange is a social security,” said AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, adding that “it is just the principle of strengthening the relationship between” AfDB “and the London stock market.”
This week, the AfDB made the largest debt issuance in its history, raising $3 billion in the financial markets, whose bonds ‘Combating COVID-19’, with an annual interest rate of 0.75%, are available at the secondary market through the London Stock Exchange and then channeled to assist African countries in combat the new coronavirus.
“We are going to mobilise everything we get from the capital markets to combat the spread of the new coronavirus in Africa,” added the banker, in a note sent to the press.
Despite being the largest bond issue in the history of the AfDB, this was not the first time that this multilateral financial institution launched social bonds.
The London Stock Exchange management announced that these bonds were exempt from paying the market entry fee for a period of three months, being part of the effort to raise funds to combat the spread of COVID-19 on the African continent.
Source: Angop
