On 03 January 2019, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), issued its debut EUR-denominated Green Bond benchmark, a 5-year €600 million Global transaction.
This transaction represents EBRD’s inaugural benchmark Green Bond in the EUR market, and its fourth benchmark-sized Green Bond. As one of the pioneers in the Green Bond market, EBRD’s reputation and credibility is firmly established among the Sustainable & Responsible Investment (“SRI”) community, who welcomed this opportunity to add the EBRD name to their EUR portfolios.
Targeting a size of €500million, EBRD also attracted demand from other high-quality Central Bank and Bank Treasury investors, which saw the order book exceed €680million. Fortunately, EBRD was able to be flexible in its sizing and upsize the transaction to €600million to satisfy demand, while still tightening the pricing.
The proceeds of EBRD’s environmental bonds are earmarked to support a specific portfolio of environmentally and socially sustainable projects (the Green Project Portfolio or GPP), which currently comprises investments in the following 5 areas: Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Water Management, Waste Management and Air Pollution Prevention & Sustainable Transport.
The EBRD first started issuing Green Bonds in 2010 and its Green Project Portfolio includes 379 projects worth a total EUR 4.1bn based on operating assets as at 30 Sep 2018.
Original source: EBRD
Published on 04 January 2019
