Berlin Hyp issued the post-summer reopening euro benchmark covered bond for a fifth consecutive year on Wednesday, and Bodo Winkler, head of funding and investor relations at the issuer, told Sustainabonds that interest in social bonds now appears to be almost on a par with green.
Berlin Hyp became the first European bank to have issued in green, social and sustainability-linked formats with the launch of a €750m 10 year mortgage Pfandbrief on Tuesday supporting affordable housing, and the bank plans to be a similarly familiar face in the social market as it is in green bonds.
The Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp) has established minimum standards for Social Pfandbriefe, which build on existing green and social standards, and proponents hope they will encourage standardisation and provide impetus to the sector.
Berlin Hyp achieved the highest bid-to-cover ratio of any German Pfandbrief this year on Tuesday when it reopened the post-summer covered bond market with its 10th benchmark green bond, a €500m 10 year deal launched in the wake of “ambitious” new sustainability targets, and followed it up with a Swiss franc debut on Thursday.
DKB sold a four times subscribed €500m five year “blue” social Pfandbrief focused on water and waste water services on Wednesday, with the Eurosystem and SRI investors among those helping the German issuer achieve an “outstanding” deal, according to its head of funding and IR.
Berlin Hyp sold over half a EUR500m eight year green Pfandbrief to investors classified as green at the tightest spread of any euro benchmark covered bond this year on Wednesday, in what head of funding and IR Bodo Winkler hailed as an amazing result, even if yield moves made pricing “a little bizarre”.
Landesbank Baden-Württemberg aims to build green benchmark curves, after having expanded and more than doubled its green bond portfolio, and wrapped up EUR750m senior and $750m covered bonds in the space of a week, the latter – the first dollar green covered bond – attracting unusually strong demand inside fair value.
Berlin Hyp has enhanced its green bond reporting by calculating carbon emission savings based on the specific energy mix of buildings in its green finance portfolio, in what is understood to be a first for a green bond issuer. The lender has meanwhile transferred its Green Pfandbrief brand to support the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks in promoting the product.
DZ Hyp will at the beginning of 2019 begin work on a green bond project, after the issuer on Tuesday launched its first benchmark Pfandbrief since being created from the merger of DG Hyp and WL Bank to become Germany’s biggest covered bond issuer.
MünchenerHyp became the first issuer to have sold both green and social covered bonds on Tuesday, with the launch of a EUR500m “Ecological ESG” deal that should be the first of annual issues, according to its head of debt IR, although plans for social bonds may take some time to come to fruition.
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