The National Investment Fund bond offer of $400 million received 3,861 valid applications that had a total value of over $1 billion, according to a notice from the National Investment Fund Holding Company, published on the website of the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) yesterday.
The NIF bond, which received subscriptions totalling $1,066,323,000, was offered at a fixed rate of 4.5 per cent and it matures in five years.
As a result of the oversubscription of the bond offer, individual investors who applied for bonds worth more than $20,000 will receive the first $20,000 in full, with the balance on a pro-rata basis. Individual investors who applied for bonds worth up to $20,000 will receive 100 per cent of what they applied for.
Individual investors applied for a total of $735.51 million, which was 184 per cent of the bond's offer size.
While some individual investors will receive all the bonds they applied for, small business entities and credit unions/pension plans, which applied for the NIF bonds will receive none. According to the notice, both small business entities and credit unions/pension plans were "not eligible to receive an allocation given the oversubscription of category 1-individuals. This is consistent with the terms set out in section 5.5 of the prospectus."
Under the rubric 'allocations,' Section 5.5 of the NIF prospectus states, "In the event of excess demand, the investor may be allocated fewer bonds than applied for, or in some cases, none at all...
"It is anticipated that individual investors who apply for $20,000 in face value of bonds or less will each be allocated 100 per cent of their application. Subject to the foregoing, applications by investors for bonds will be distributed in accordance with the provisions below.
"If the offer is oversubscribed, consisten with the policy of promoting the widest possible participation in the ownership of the bond, priority to receive the allocation appliedfor shall be given to applications by individuals.
"If the offer is oversubscribed by individual applicants, successfull individual applicants will receive a prorated number of bonds determined as follows:
"Value of subscription by the individual multiplied by the value of bonds to be issued divided by total value of all subscriptions by individuals."
Small business entities applied for $28.2 million shares, while credit unions and pension plans applied for $302.6 million.
Successful investors are expected to see the bonds credited to their Trinidad and Tobago Central Depository accounts on March 13, 2024, subject to approval by the TTSE and the TTCD.
The NIF bonds worth $400 million are backed by 6,546,417 shares in Republic Financial Holding Ltd, which were purchased by NIF from the Government on November 20, 2023.
Those RFHL shares were worth $784,391,685 at the end of trading yesterday as the bank holding company traded at $119.82 per share.
The NIF Holding Company is 100 per cent owned by Corporation Sole, the Minister of Finance, and its offices are located at level 2 of the Eric Williams Financial Building, where the Ministry of Finance is housed.
The directors of the NIF Holding C0mpany are all officers of the Ministry of Finance:
* Jennifer Lutchman, chair, is permanent secretary;
* Nadira Lyder, director, project implementation advisor;
* Dexter Jaggernauth, director, is acting permanent secretary;
* Hayden Manzano, director, is an officer in the Strategic Management Division; and
* Cindy Pierre, director, is state counsel II in the Treasury Solicitor's Department