Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Leading global investment bank Goldman Sachs has announced that it has listed a R1.25 billion 5 year floating rate bond on the JSE bond market.
As one of the largest inward listings in the South African market to date, this issuance serves to reaffirm Goldman Sachs' commitment to South Africa, the largest capital market in Africa, it said in a statement at the weekend.
Goldman Sachs is the first non-African multinational to inward list bonds in South Africa, demonstrating clear confidence in the local market.
The bond, listed on 23 September, is set to mature in five years.
The funding raised from this benchmark transaction supports Goldman Sachs' strategy locally and abroad, and strengthens its ability to service clients in the region.
The issuance will enable the sale of international bonds in the local market. To orchestrate this, Goldman Sachs established a DMTN shelf by importing all the global debt program terms and conditions from Goldman Sachs' offshore program and adding some JSE specific items. The bonds received a local credit rating of zaAAA as a Senior Unsecured debt facility listed on the Interest Rate Market of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The entire issuance has been placed in the institutional market with no requirement for bank market support.
Goldman Sachs and Standard Bank were Joint Lead Arrangers for this bond issuance.
Through the firm's long established South African office the group has recently advised Edcon, African Bank and Transnet on their respective international bond offerings this year. It has also advised Massmart on its recent sale of a 51% stake to Walmart, and Jinchuan on its acquisition of Metorex. - I-Net Bridge