PRAN Agro Limited (PAL), a sister concern of PRAN-RFL Group, has successfully closed a landmark BDT- 262 crore onshore bond. The eight-year tenor bond will allow PRAN Agro to finance its infrastructure expansion plans. MetLife Bangladesh is the sole investor in this bond.
The bond is partially guaranteed by Guarant Co. It’s a matter of great pride that PRAN Agro has been able to receive finance from MetLife without any guarantee in some portion of this bond due to its reputation for the transaction.
The proceeds from the Guarant Co guaranteed bond will enable PRAN Agro to finance the second part of PRAN Agro’s expansion plan to increase its production capacity, in response to increased demand for its products in different export markets.
The project includes the construction of additional factory buildings and the purchase of machinery for five product categoriesi.e. noodles, confectionary, culinary, cooking oil, and bakery products. PRAN-RFL is one of Bangladesh’s largest corporates working in the field of agri and agro-processing. Working with 100,000 registered contract farmers and directly employing 1,45,000 people.
The transaction is expected to provide around 240 new contract farmers with a reliable source of income and will create around 500 jobs at various levelsof production, operations and maintenance, of which around 60 percent will be for women.
A bond closing ceremony was held at hotel Radisson Bluin Dhaka on Thursday evening while Prof. Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam, Chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, Dr. Duncan Overfield, Deputy Development Director, Government of UK, Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, Chairman and Chief Executive of PRAN-RFL group, Elena Butarova, Senior Vice President of MetLife andNishant Kumar, Managing Director and Head of Asia, Guarant Co shared their speech.
About the bond, Uzma Chowdhury, Director (Corporate Finance)of PRAN-RFLgroup,said,“There is a huge demand for agro-processed food products in foreign markets manufactured by PRAN. This finance will help us to build up the required capacity to meet the increasing demand in different export markets all over the globe.”
Ala Ahmad, Chief Executive Officer at MetLife Bangladesh,said,“MetLife Bangladesh's total investment in the country's financial sector exceeds BDT 17,000 crore, and we continue to seek investment opportunities that strengthen our financial business capability in serving customers and contribute to the country's overall economic development.”
Layth Al-Falaki, CEO of Guarant Co, said: “We are delighted to have closed our second transaction with PRAN Agro which will further develop the country’s bond market. In May 2021, we provided PRAN Agro with a guarantee of a Tk 2.1 billion (c. USD 25 million) onshore bond to attract domestic institutional capital from Bangladesh and support the company’s expansion plans".
