Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria (RMB) is putting together this year a bond programme, already registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and would be listed on the floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).
RMB, which is part of the issuing houses for MTN listing is also collaborating with NSE to come out with different products that can be listed on the exchange.
Michael Larbie, CEO, RMB Nigeria and Regional Head West Africa, disclosed this on Wednesday at the closing bell ceremony of the bank’s 5th anniversary and official launch of the RMBN Stock Brokers at the NSE.
“It’s been an interesting journey doing business in Nigerian market like any developing economy has its own challenges, but you have to appreciate its challenges and navigate your way through and we have navigated our way through in some but we have been able to work with our client to continue to progress in what they do and along the line progress in our own business”, Larbie said.
“In the last five years, we have been lucky and progressive but it is never easy in an emerging market like ours where things are always never perfect but since we are making some progress directionally, we can hang our heart on it and try and drive some businesses around it”.
Responding to questions on projections for Rand Merchant Bank, he said “we hope that we would continue to do more for our clients and we hope that we would have done some of the deals that we have on the pipeline.
“So you can think of us as one of the leading capital market players that have brought issuances today and have also helped structured fixed income deals, so we are busy doing the bond deals for our clients that would have been actualized and followed them to those bonds to be listed in the market.
“We wanted to be seen as a trusted merchant bank in the Nigerian market we want our clients to come to us as an institution they can trust and help them think through challenging issues that they are grappling with”.
On areas the market can improve upon to attract more investment, Larbie said emphasizing on corporate governance, will further enhance confidence in the market which will attract both domestic and foreign investors to play more in the market.
“You would have seen that since CBN introduced Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Fixing (NAFEX) market, we have seen an increased portfolio investment both in fixed income and equity to the extent that people become convinced that the NAFEX market is here to stay and investors believe that they can leverage the market”, Larbie added.
