Nations Trust Bank (NTB) Plc has raised Rs. 1 billion In a debenture issue through a private placement in a bid to inject tier 2 capital into the bank keeping to its expansion plans within the third quarter of this year. "NTB needed tier 2 capital to keep in line with the bank's growth plans. As such they issued 10 million debentures of Rs. 100 each in unsecured, subordinated, redeemable debentures," a banker close to NTB told The Sunday Times FT.

He said the issue was to close on September 30 but closed on August 19 on full subscription. “It was a successful one and most who subscribed were institutional investors (about 95 %) such as insurance firms. The debenture was at an annual effective rate of 21 %," he added, saying that most investors wanted a fixed rate in order to hedge their medium term liabilities.