The Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) announced that it has settled the first bond (DBN20) that it issued under its N.dollars 2.5 billion Medium-Term Note Programme listed on the Namibian Stock Exchange.
A media statement issued by the bank on Tuesday said the bond matured on 04 September 2020, adding that the settlement of the bond went smoothly and successfully.
“At maturity, it had 38 bondholders, of which are 37 Namibian entities and one foreign entity,” said the statement.
According to the statement, the issuance of DBN20 in September 2017 marked the first time that the bank formally approached Namibian capital markets to raise funding and deepen the capital market.
“Since issuing DBN20, the Bank issued another three bonds (DBN20A1, DBN20B, and DBN23) which raised a total of N$500 million for lending to financially viable, environmentally and socially acceptable projects with developmental impact,” it added.
DBN20A1, DBN20B, and DBN23 are the first and only remunerating bonds issued and listed on the Namibian Stock Exchange, which as stated by the statement, demonstrate the bank’s ability to honour its debt obligations as they become due, having reported successfully honoured the capital repayments on these remunerating bonds to date.
In addition, the statement highlighted that since listing its N.dollarss 2.5 billion Medium-Term Note Programme in July 2017, the bank is currently the fourth largest issuer on the Namibian Stock Exchange outside of the Namibian Government and the largest issuer in the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) category on the Namibian Stock Exchange.
“DBN has a long-term issuer default rating of BB and national scale rating of AAA (zaf) by Fitch ratings. This rating is equal to the rating of the Government of the Republic of Namibia,” concluded the statement.