Tanzania’s largest commercial bank just raised $130 million to boost lending to real sector
CRDB Bank has secured the sum of $130 million in the form of a syndicated term loan facility.
A press statement seen by Business Insider Africa said the loan facility was arranged/coordinated by South Africa’s Investec Bank in collaboration with the Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo.
The funds realised from the transaction would help CRDB Bank to boost its lending capacity to Tanzanian companies and SMEs. Chief Executive Officer Abdulmajid Nsekela explained that the initial target was to raise $50 million. The target was, however, exceeded after many international investors showed interest.
“We are very excited to have closed this agreement. The raised funds from the international market will improve the bank’s overall capitalisation and support our lending portfolio to the corporate and SME sector in Tanzania and Burundi. I would like to thank Investec Bank and Intesa for their support,” Nsekela said.
Note that this is the first private sector syndicated loan deal in Tanzania. CRDB Bank is also the first Tanzanian bank to carry out a successful funding round from international markets.
While commenting on the deal, the Global Relations Manager at Intesa Sanpaolo, Gustaaf Eerenstein, said:
“The overwhelming success of the transaction, attaining a 150% oversubscription, is a testament to the management and people of CRDB Bank. This transaction bodes well for CRDB to further diversify its funding base, and to be able to successfully tap international markets.”
CRDB Bank was established in 1996 and specialises in retail banking, treasury, insurance, microfinance services, etc. It is the largest bank in Tanzania. According to Statista, it has a total asset size of TZS8.8 billion as of 2021.
In 2016, Moody’s rated CRDB Bank with a “B1 stable outlook”, making it the first bank in Sub-Saharan Africa to have received the highest credit rating.
