By Bridget Boulle
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has launched its first Sterling Climate Awareness Bond, a GBP500 million, 6 year bond. This is the 9th Climate Awareness Bond EIB have issued so far this year (including taps) putting them at the top of the 2014 issuer pile with $2.94bn so far.
Word is that they were originally looking to raise around GBP350 million, but the deal was upsized due to high demand primarily from UK SRI investors and major bank treasuries, some of which have dedicated SRI portfolios. Coupon is 2.25% and it was priced at G+30bp which is in line with the original guidance.
Surprisingly, this is only the second GBP issuance in the green bond space with Unilever being the first last week.
Geographic breakdown of buyers:
- UK = 70%
- Other Europe = 13%
- Asia = 11%
Investors types were:
- Banks = 69%
- Fund managers/ insurance / pension = 12%
- Central banks = 11%
- Building Societies/ Retail/ Corp = 8%
Lead Managers were Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Scotiabank.
