MCB structures $51m Tolaram loan to refinance Guinness Nigeria acquisition

The Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited (MCB) has structured and delivered a $51 million medium-term loan facility for Tolaram, the Singapore-headquartered multinational and one of Africa’s largest consumer goods groups.

In a statement seen by BusinessDay, the facility partially refinances an existing short-term facility contracted in connection with a previously completed acquisition of Guinness Nigeria Plc in Nigeria, allowing Tolaram to move to a longer-dated funding structure better aligned with its growth objectives. It was accompanied by a tailored covenant package providing the Group with financial flexibility while supporting long-term value creation.

This landmark transaction on the Singapore-Nigeria corridor underscores MCB’s Asia-to-Africa strategy, which is centred on facilitating trade, investment, and capital flows between these two high-growth regions. Asian corporates and financial institutions have rapidly growing commercial activity across the African continent, and MCB positions itself as the counterparty able to structure and carry that exposure, drawing on its Mauritian platform and its African footprint.

“Asian groups are building real industrial capacity in Africa, and they need a bank that understands both ends of the route,” said Thierry Hebraud, Chief Executive Officer of Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB).

“Tolaram has been present in Nigeria for decades, expanding rapidly to other parts of Africa and Middle East. And it is a market we know well. We intend to keep on developing the Singapore to…