Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Goldman Sachs International on the successful R5.482 billion (US$525 million) rights offer of African Bank Investments Limited. The rights offer, which was oversubscribed by 64%, was fully underwritten by Goldman Sachs International and saw over 685 million new shares issued to the bank’s existing shareholders.

African Bank Investments Limited is the largest provider of unsecured loans in South Africa and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

A cross-border Norton Rose Fulbright team advised Goldman Sachs International on New York, English, South African and Canadian law. The team in London was led by Alan Bainbridge, corporate partner who focuses on the financial services sector and Tom Vita, capital markets partner who has been working on African transactions for over 15 years.

Alan Bainbridge comments:

“We are delighted to have advised Goldman Sachs on such an important transaction in the South African financial services sector. The subscription level in the offering is yet more evidence of the increased interest we are seeing among financial institutions and other investors in participating in the region.”

Tom Vita comments:

“Transactions such as this one show the compelling proposition platforms such as ours can provide, as we were able to draw on the services of ECM team members on three continents as well as our financial services team in Johannesburg and London.”

The London team also included Raj Karia, Kevin Connolly, Tom Prowel and Amy Reed. The team in Johannesburg was led by Kevin Cron, who was assisted by Georg Kahle, Charles Ancer, Loris Rech, Bridget King and Pierre Swart. Peter Wiazowski from the Montreal office advised on Canadian securities law matters.

The deal closely follows Norton Rose Fulbright’s representation of Barclays on the merger of its African operations with Absa Group, creating Barclays Africa Group, the continent’s largest retail bank by branch networks and customers.

African Bank Investments Limited was advised by Reed Smith and South African firm Prinsloo, Tindle & Andropoulos.