Latest stories on Socially Responsible Investments

• Green Deal puts the action into the Action Plan

  The European Union’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan is changing the legal and cultural environment of capital markets. It is bringing excitement — but also fear. It aims at systemic change, but has many opt-outs. And just when the Plan is getting going, another one arrives — the European Green Deal. As Jon Hay reports, that may be the one the market really needs.

  • 17 Sep 2019

• GlobalCapital SRI Awards crown sovereigns and Société du Grand Paris

  

  GlobalCapital has revealed the results of its Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Awards 2019. The Awards gave honours to three debut sovereign issuers: the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Chile, investment firm Amundi, and banks including Crédit Agricole, HSBC and ING.

  • 18 Sep 2019

• Attenborough factor pushes oceans on to SRI agenda

  The public is increasingly conscious of environmental challenges facing the ocean economy, and the capital markets are taking note. Industries using the oceans are numerous and fragmented, making allocating money in a sustainable way challenging. But some routes are open for investors looking to improve activities involving plastics, shipping and fishing. Jasper Cox reports.

  • 17 Sep 2019

• The new normal

  It has been a long time since a brand new product appeared in the loan market — apart from new ways for private equity firms to erode covenants. But in April 2017, two deals arrived in a single week that have changed the loan market. Sustainability-linked loans offer a structured way to tie pricing to ESG performance, on a whole company basis. One day, they might change the bond market too. Jon Hay reports

  • 17 Sep 2019

• EBRD to launch first ever climate resilience bond

  

  The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has mandated banks for its first ever climate resilience bond, a new type of socially responsible product that aims to bring more focus on climate adaptation, rather than mitigation. It follows the recent publication of the Climate Resilience Principles by the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI).

  • 19 Sep 2019

• LBBW struggles for demand with second FIG social bond of the week

  

  LBBW joined CaixaBank is raising social bond funding in the euro market this week, but the German lender struggled to build up demand and tighten pricing for its €500m deal.

  • 19 Sep 2019

• EIB and NIB fly in euros but Joint Laender struggles

  

  The European Investment Bank and Nordic Investment Bank kept the strong momentum going in the SSA euro bond market on Wednesday, capitalising on the European Central Bank’s announcement of fresh stimulus last week and a lack of issuance over the summer. However, Joint Laender's deal was only just oversubscribed, which the leads attributed to investors’ hesitance to buy a negative yielding 10 year bond from a less liquid name.

  • 18 Sep 2019

• Azure Power returns with popular green bond

  

  Azure Power Global pulled off an unusually large price tightening on its $350m green bond, which was buoyed by strong investor demand for a rare issuance from the Indian renewable energy sector.

  • 18 Sep 2019

• Lai Sun Development bags HK$3.6bn green loan

  

  Lai Sun Development, a Hong Kong-listed property developer and investor, has sealed a hugely popular HK$3.6bn ($460m) four year green loan to finance the Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel.

  • 18 Sep 2019

• Solar finance pro departs ABS issuer Mosaic

  Phil Narodick, who launched residential solar ABS issuer Mosaic's first loan product as director of financial products in 2014, has started a new job at SunPower Corp.

  • 17 Sep 2019

• Gothenburg debuts new green bond framework

  

  The City of Gothenburg sold a new dual tranche green bond on Tuesday, raising a combined Skr1.8bn across fixed and floating rate tranches. The note was the first printed under its new updated green bond framework.

  • 17 Sep 2019

• Buying Fairtrade — an acquired taste for investors

  Fairtrade foods are popular with ethical consumers. For investors, a sustainability bond based on the same is not so straightforward. Nevertheless, the UK’s Co-operative Group has joined the small group of companies stretching the labelled bond market towards improving supply chains. Jon Hay reports

  • 17 Sep 2019

• Going green can be hard work

  Green bonds have hardly penetrated the manufacturing sector, partly because making companies’ operations sustainable is not easy. Any green bonds they issue will be similarly complex. As Koninklijke Philips’s debut showed, this asks a lot of the issuer — and the investors. Jon Hay reports

  • 17 Sep 2019

• CaixaBank and RBI stand out with ESG bonds on 'ridiculously busy' day

  

  CaixaBank launched a non-preferred senior bond linked to social causes on Tuesday, while Raiffeisen Bank International launched a green preferred senior bond. Both deals were heavily oversubscribed on a day that one banker described as 'ridiculously busy'.

  • 17 Sep 2019

• Banks hope for fair October winds for Zero-E listing

  

  Zero-E, the Spanish renewable energy firm, is targeting October to launch its IPO and is hoping that fair markets and growing demand for sustainable assets will propel it to success.

  • 17 Sep 2019

• Top banking supervisor controversially leaves to lead AFME

  

  Adam Farkas, executive director of the European Banking Authority, will lead the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), a move that has caused concern among some observers of financial policy in Europe.

  • 17 Sep 2019

• Aviva announces head of ESG for real estate

  

  Aviva Investors has appointed a head of environmental, social and governance for its real estate business.

  • 17 Sep 2019

• Glaxo bags €2.5bn, all negative, Dea €4bn

  

  Most investment grade corporate bonds issued over the past weeks have had intermediate to longer tenors, but on Monday issuance tilted towards the shorter end, as GlaxoSmithKline printed two negative yielding tranches.

  • 16 Sep 2019

• Generali to break open green bond market for European insurers

  

  Assicurazioni Generali is set to become the first European insurance company to sell a green bond, after unveiling plans on Monday to raise up to €750m of tier two capital for green investments.

  • 16 Sep 2019

• AfDB goes short with Hong Kong dollar ESG note

  

  Bankers were surprised that the African Development Bank placed a one year bond last week linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.

  • 16 Sep 2019

• JA Solar beams $100m borrowing

  

  China’s JA Solar Holdings, which was taken private last year, has returned to the offshore loan market, inviting banks to join a $100m facility.

  • 16 Sep 2019

• EIB brings SAB in kronor with wider assets

  

  The European Investment Bank brought to market on Monday the Swedish krona bond with which it had hoped to relaunch its Sustainability Awareness Bond programme, after expanding the assets eligible for inclusion.

  • 12 Sep 2019

• Enel to use sustainability pricing for all bonds

  

  Evidence is mounting that Enel’s $1.5bn sustainability-linked bond, issued last Thursday, introduced not just a new product, but a new market. In recent days the deal has generated intense interest, and Enel has committed to using the product extensively in future, writes Jon Hay.

  • 12 Sep 2019

• Enel-SG trade shows derivatives market’s sustainable longings

  

  The over-the-counter derivatives market is one of the last areas still barely touched by the wave of interest in environmental and social issues that is sweeping financial markets. But below the surface, derivatives players want to get involved. That was highlighted publicly on September 5 when Enel, the Italian power and gas group, engaged with Société Générale in what it called “the world’s first Sustainable Development Goal-linked cross-currency swap”.

  • 12 Sep 2019

• Renovate America stirs sleeping PACE market

  

  Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) issuer Renovate America is breathing life back into an otherwise quiet market with a deal backed by residential PACE liens. Instead of tapping the securitization market, PACE providers are choosing to go down alternative routes, such as pursuing private transactions or arranging forward flow agreements, sources say.

  • 12 Sep 2019

• Nissan debuts in US private placements, as car companies take shelter in private debt

  

  Nissan has sold upwards of $600m US private placements in the first US PP deal for any Japanese car company, according to several people familiar with the situation. Headline deals from car companies in both European and US private debt markets this year has led market players to believe private investors are taking a rather forgiving approach to the industry’s challenging moment. Silas Brown reports.

  • 12 Sep 2019

• Better gender balance correlates with higher ratings

  

  North American companies with a higher share of female directors on their boards also have higher credit ratings for their debt, according to analysis by Moody’s.

  • 12 Sep 2019

• Kommuninvest prints Swedish green note with rare negative yield

  

  Swedish agency Kommuninvest doubled the size of its June 2023 green bond on Tuesday through a Skr3bn ($309.8m) tap. The tap was issued with a negative yield — rare for the Swedish krona market — and is the issuer’s first negative yielding green print since October 2016.

  • 12 Sep 2019

• Disaster clean-up franchise brings inaugural ABS

  

  Servpro, a property restoration and disaster clean-up business, is preparing its debut whole business securitization, adding to the long list of first time issuers that have tapped the ABS market in 2019 to take advantage of cheap financing.

  • 11 Sep 2019

• 'Brussels smells green, you can see it and feel it,' says ECBC's Bertalot

  

  The prospective growth of green and sustainable covered bond funding, and the Covered Bond Directive, were key topics at the well attended European Covered Bond Council’s 30th plenary session, held in Munich on Wednesday, especially with respect to the Pfandbrief market, which celebrates its 250th anniversary this year.

  • 11 Sep 2019

• Green adds lustre to new 10 year ADB Kangaroo

  

  The Asian Development Bank hopped on to screens on Tuesday to print a new 10.5 year green Kangaroo bond. Demand for longer dated Kangaroo bonds has been muted recently, leading to smaller transaction sizes. So introducing a green label helped the ADB feel “comfortable” with achieving its minimum issuance size, said Anthony Ruschpler, treasury specialist at the ADB in Manila.

  • 11 Sep 2019

• Credit risk models don’t work with climate change, says EBA supervisor

  

  As climate change takes hold, banks could incur losses in a very different way from what is typically captured by using credit risk modelling, delegates heard at the European Covered Bond Council’s 30th plenary meeting, held in Munich on Wednesday.

  • 11 Sep 2019

• CLO manager THL rolls out ESG framework

  

  Credit investment manager THL Credit announced on Tuesday that it has begun using an environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework in its bank loan, high yield and CLO strategies.

  • 10 Sep 2019

• Green price ratchet bonds will soon be everywhere

  

  The sustainability-linked bond issued by Enel on Thursday opens a new chapter in the green finance market. Anyone tempted to think this will be a freak should think again. The idea is sure to catch on.

  • 10 Sep 2019

• The perils of investing in used cars

  

  Moody’s has downgraded Ford Motor Credit Company from investment grade to a junk rating. It is not the only auto manufacturer to run suffer a prang, however, and as more securitization issuers move into the autos sector, UK market participants need to be wary of history repeating.

  • 10 Sep 2019

• AIIB partners with Amundi to launch climate bond portfolio

  

  The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Amundi announced a collaboration on Tuesday to invest in green and climate bonds in Asia. The fixed income portfolio will have an initial size of $500m, with a further $500m to come from institutional investors.

  • 10 Sep 2019

• KfW extends green bond curve with an ‘outstanding success’

  

  KfW won huge praise from on-looking bankers for a curve extending and rare 10 year dollar green bond on Tuesday. The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and Österreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) also enjoyed success in the dollar primary market with three year trades, with the former selling its debut Sofr-linked floating rate note.

  • 10 Sep 2019

• Auto industry takes comfort and cash in Schuldschein market

  

  The car industry has long been a staple of the Schuldschein market, but this year more than borrowers than usual have taken a spin round the market in search of debt. The product has attracted a wide range of manufacturers, from its native Germany and the rest of Europe.

  • 10 Sep 2019

• Lonza refinances its revolvers and terms

  

  Swiss medical firm Lonza has refinanced its term debt and revolving credit facilities, in dollars, euros and Swiss francs.

  • 10 Sep 2019

• Dombrovskis keeps CMU brief under Leyen

  

  Valdis Dombrovskis is set to retain his role as the European Commissioner in charge of financial stability, financial services and capital markets union, after president-elect Ursula von der Leyen announced her new leadership team on Tuesday.

  • 10 Sep 2019

SRI News Archive