OCP taps hybrid bond for extra $150M, building on April's landmark African deal
What's the deal? Moroccan phosphate group OCPDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised an additional $149.9 million through a tap issue on the hybrid bond it first sold in April. The new bonds link to the 10.25-year tranche of that perpetual subordinated bond, which had raised $500 million. J.P. Morgan SecuritiesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → acted as the initial purchaser.
The details: The tap carries a fixed interest rate of 7.3682% until the first reset date of July 22, 2036. The trade date was September 14, and settlement fell on September 21; the new bonds will form a single series with the April securities from November 2.
Why now? The issuance proceeded under authorization the board granted on March 12, relying on a prospectus exemption for bonds fungible with securities already trading on Euronext DublinDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s Global Exchange Market. OCP plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.
What's the endgame? The tap builds on OCP's inaugural international hybrid bond in April — the first issuance of its kind by a corporate issuer in Africa. That offering raised $1.5 billion across two tranches, funding the group's 2026 investment program and general needs.
Demand for the April sale ran high. A marketing day drew 90 international investors, and the order book reached nearly $7 billion, more than four times the amount on offer. That strength let OCP tighten pricing by 62.5 basis points.
Chairman and chief executive officer Mostafa Terrab called the April deal “a major milestone for OCP” and pointed to “investors' sustained confidence in the strength of our credit profile.”
By the numbers: OCP holds investment-grade issuer ratings of Baa3 from Moody's and BBB- from Standard & PoorDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s, plus BB+ from FitchDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — all stable. The hybrid bonds carry lower instrument ratings of Ba2 and BB.
The signal: The tap ranks in roughly the top third of debt raises by size, extending a busy year of borrowing for OCP that also included a MAD 5 billion ($500 million) domestic perpetual bond in June. Repeat access to international and local markets signals that investors remain comfortable funding African corporate issuers at scale.
Image credit: United Nations Industrial Development Organization
