South Africa's Transnet raises US$1 billion from 10-year bond sale

SOUTH AFRICA's state-owned ports rail freight, logistics and pipelines firm Transnet has raised ZAR8.3 million (US$1 billion) from its 10-year bond with an annual interest rate of four per cent in the international markets.

The bond issue is part of the company's ongoing capital raising exercises which will see more than ZAR300 billion spent on infrastructure projects over the next seven years, reported London's Containerisation International.

The 10-year maturity bond was the first of this length to be issued by Transnet in the international capital markets and while it was very competitively priced at 262.5 basis points above 10-year US treasury rates, the group declared that it was 'significantly oversubscribed'.

According to executives in the group, Transnet is looking to raise at least 30 per cent of its capital expenditure programme needed to support its Market Demand Strategy (MDS) from a combination of the international and domestic debt markets.