News

Landshypotek Bank is preparing to issue the first green covered bond from Sweden, a Swedish krona debut set to be backed by and finance forestry loans, thereby targeting “a very important part” of tackling CO2 emissions, its chief sustainability officer told Sustainabonds.

BNP Paribas “pushed all the right buttons” with the first green senior non-preferred bond on Tuesday, a EUR500m six year deal that attracted some EUR1.1bn of orders, offering an in-demand maturity and ultimately pricing with what was deemed to be an impressively small premium.

ABN AMRO lauded the hardiness of green bonds in difficult market conditions after issuing a EUR750m seven year green senior unsecured bond on Wednesday, its biggest green bond to date. The Dutch bank has added new project types to its framework, with the new issue partly funding offshore wind.

Berlin Hyp took what could be a last chance to secure prevailing attractive funding levels with a EUR500m 10 year green senior unsecured bond on Tuesday, but an allocation of just 20% to SRI accounts disappointed, as the deal’s maturity and spread wasn’t for all in a difficult market.

Caffil looks set to become the first French issuer of a green or social covered bond, as it plans to this year issue a social bond backed by the public sector assets it refinances with an initial focus on healthcare, and to later enter the green bond market, officials at the issuer told Sustainabonds.

The European energy efficient mortgages initiative – comprising EeMAP and EeDaPP – aims to bring together lenders, builders, utilities and others to create a standardised product to benefit 500 million EU citizens and the planet. Luca Bertalot, secretary general of the EMF-ECBC, which is leading the project, spoke to Sustainabonds ahead of the launch of a pilot phase in June.

An SRI portfolio manager warned issuers who are slow to take up green bonds that their credentials may be questioned, at CBI18 last Tuesday, although investors said they acknowledge there is no such thing as the perfect green bond, and one said he would commit to buy non-green issuance from other parts of green bond issuers’ capital structure.

A member of the sustainable finance HLEG has warned that a European Commission proposal to include green commitments in bond prospectuses and make them legally binding risks raising costs and deterring issuance unless other requirements are eased or incentives provided.