Cleary Gottlieb represented the Republic of Senegal in an international sovereign bond offering of $1 billion 6.750 percent amortizing notes due 2048 and €1 billion 4.750 percent amortizing notes due 2028 as well as a related €250 million bridge-to-bond loan entered into with Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Société Générale in January 2018 (the “Bridge Loan”).
The offering priced on March 6, 2018, and closed on March 13, 2018. Proceeds will be used to repay in full the Bridge Loan, to repay in full the outstanding balance of a €150 million loan entered into with Credit Suisse in March 2015, to repay in full the outstanding balance of a €150 million syndicated loan arranged by Afreximbank in October 2016, to finance the purchase by the Republic of Senegal of notes due 2021 agreed to be purchased pursuant to the concurrent tender offer and to finance certain public investment projects pertaining to the Republic’s strategic development plan, “Plan Sénégal Emergent,” which was launched in 2014 by President Macky Sall.
The notes were issued to investors in the United States pursuant to Rule 144A and outside of the United States pursuant to Regulation S, and were admitted to trading on the Main Securities Market of the Irish Stock Exchange. With a final maturity of 30 years for the U.S. Dollar-denominated notes, the issuance marks one of the longest maturity debt instruments ever issued by a sub-Saharan African sovereign, other than South Africa and is one of the largest sovereign bond offerings in Africa to date.
Concurrently with the bond offering, on February 26, 2018, the Republic of Senegal launched a tender offer for its outstanding $500 million 8.750 percent notes due 2021. On March 6, 2018, the Republic of Senegal announced that it had accepted $200 million in aggregate principal amount of the notes validly tendered for purchase. The tender offer settled on March 14, 2018, with the Republic’s payment of the tender consideration and accrued interest.