Nigerian oil and gas firm Oando has received a N94.6bn (US$480mn) facility from nine local banks as part of its debt restructuring to return to profitability.

The financing is a five-year medium-term note priced at 200 basis points above, and was co-ordinated by Access Bank as mandated lead arranger. The other institutions involved are Diamond Bank, Ecobank, FCMB, Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, UBA Bank, Union Bank and Zenith Bank.

Wale Tinubu, group chief executive of Oando, explains: “This is the pivotal leg in our group restructuring plan of growth. The company now stands diversified with higher weighted dollar-denominated earnings, an optimised and restructured balance sheet with lower cost of capital and longer tenors. With the upturn in the global oil prices to levels above US$50 per barrel, we now look forward to the successes of 2016, having ridden out the storm.”

The company was heavily affected by falling oil prices, and posted a net loss of US$320mn in 2014. It is due to announce 2015 results by June 30, but already posted a US$63.5mn net loss for the nine months to September.