Latest stories on Socially Responsible Investments

• Legal ignorance chills bondholder engagement

  

  Bondholders are still afraid to form alliances like those in the equity market to pressure issuers to improve their environmental, social and governance performance. They are paralysed by fear of market abuse and competition rules. But there is hope regulators will reassure them.

  • 18 Jul 2019

• GlobalCapital SRI Awards: poll extended

  

  In response to requests from market participants, GlobalCapital has extended the closing date of its poll to determine the 2019 winners of its Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Awards. Market participants can now vote until July 26.

  • 19 Jul 2019

• ABS investors eye ESG as way to flag risky issuers

  

  Awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria is set to expand in the securitization market, said market participants.

  • 17 Jul 2019

• New Commission boss pledges €1tr of sustainable finance

  

  After her narrowly passed confirmation vote in the European Parliament on Tuesday evening, new European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen is set to establish a sustainable investment plan and to green the European Investment Bank.

  • 17 Jul 2019

• Sweden set to issue green bonds by 2020

  

  The Swedish government has instructed the country’s national debt office to develop a green framework before issuance in the format by next year as part of its sustainable development strategy.

  • 18 Jul 2019

• KBN plots public green comeback

  

  Kommunalbanken is planning to make a return to the public green bond market for the first time since 2016 later this year.

  • 18 Jul 2019

• Bruntwood SciTech signs green real estate loan

  

  The UK’s Bruntwood SciTech has signed a £185m green facility, with the property company planning to use part of the funds to develop specialist scientific workspaces in the north of England.

  • 18 Jul 2019

• City of London closes maiden US PP as green debt

  

  The City of London Corporation will raise £450m ($562m) of debt from its first US private placement deal, surpassing expectations. The debt will be issued under a green and sustainable financing framework.

  • 18 Jul 2019

• Foncière Verte closes Euro PP

  

  French property company Foncière Verte has sold €85m of privately placed bonds.

  • 19 Jul 2019

• RBS’s McEwan heads to NAB for clean-up job

  

  National Australia Bank has hired Ross McEwan as its new group CEO, as the bank seeks to improve its reputation after a damning report criticised its conduct.

  • 19 Jul 2019

• LBBW ‘bang on’ with green non-pref despite softer backdrop

  

  LBBW extended its non-preferred senior curve with a new green bond this week, hitting lead managers' price expectations in spite of soft market conditions.

  • 17 Jul 2019

• Investors welcome EC’s first female president

  

  Ursula von der Leyen has been picked as the first female president of the European Commission as Christine Lagarde quit her IMF job following her European Central Bank governor nomination. Fixed income investors have welcomed the change of occupant in some of the bloc’s most powerful seats of office.

  • 17 Jul 2019

• Places for People seals €150m private placement

  

  Places for People, the UK housing association and property management company, has raised €150m from a privately placed note led by Goldman Sachs.

  • 16 Jul 2019

• NatWest Markets launches ESG deposits

  

  NatWest Markets, the investment bank owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, has launched its own environmental, social and governance deposit product, responding to a desire among companies, public bodies and investment firms to invest their cash ethically.

  • 16 Jul 2019

• Crédit Agricole adds to Asian sustainability team

  

  Crédit Agricole has nabbed one of HSBC’s former sustainability bond leads to work on its sustainable financing team in Asia.

  • 16 Jul 2019

• Yara the latest to link loan to sustainability

  

  Norway’s Yara has signed a $1.1bn-equivalent revolving credit facility, with the fertiliser company swapping its existing bank debt for a sustainability-linked deal.

  • 16 Jul 2019

• Pension Insurance Corp puts £40m into Scottish housing association

  

  The UK's Pension Insurance Corp has bought a £40m bond privately issued by Eildon Housing Association, a Scottish social housing provider.

  • 16 Jul 2019

• Alphamab Oncology gears up for HK IPO

  

  Chinese biopharmaceutical company Alphamab Oncology is planning to start sounding out investors for its Hong Kong IPO later this week, according to a source close to the transaction.

  • 16 Jul 2019

• MUFG reveals flat curve in double offering in euros

  

  Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) sold new five and 10 year senior bonds in euros this week, with only 9bp of difference between the final pricing on the two tranches.

  • 16 Jul 2019

• Acciona nabs €155m from green Schuldschein

  

  Acciona, the Spanish infrastructure and renewable energy company, appealed to investors with its green, triple tranche Schuldschein offering, which closed last week at €155m.

  • 15 Jul 2019

• Citi preps four tranche deal to fund Ardagh spinout

  

  Citi is preparing a four tranche high yield deal to fund the creation of ‘Trivium’, a new metal packaging company, owned by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and formed from a $2.5bn spin-out from Ardagh, combined with its Exal business.

  • 15 Jul 2019

• Von der Leyen bids to green the EIB

  

  Ursula von der Leyen has proposed setting up an EU sustainable investment plan and refocusing the European Investment Bank more around climate, in a list of written commitments sent to the bloc’s main political groups one day before she will be confirmed or rejected by the European Parliament as the next president of the European Commission.

  • 15 Jul 2019

• Lima Metro 2 hits road to fund mandatory redemption

  

  The consortium building the second line of the Lima and Callao Metro in Peru will meet bond investors this week as it looks to finance a mandatory redemption of a portion of the borrower’s existing notes caused by delays in the project.

  • 15 Jul 2019

• Influential fin reg committee shunned by new MEPs

  

  The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), which has responsibility for several upcoming proposals with huge consequences for banks and financial markets, is now struggling to attract members. Parliamentarians appear more concerned by environmental and civil liberties matters.

  • 15 Jul 2019

• BNP appoints Apac sustainable capital markets head

  

  BNP Paribas has hired a former executive director at Natixis to lead its sustainable capital markets team for Asia Pacific.

  • 15 Jul 2019

• Tobam sets carbon limit for credit, HY portfolios

  

  Tobam, the French asset manager, is ensuring its fixed income portfolios have carbon footprints at least 20% smaller than those of their reference benchmarks, extending a policy already in place for equity portfolios. It is focusing on the carbon footprint of issuers, rather than individual issues, meaning that it would ignore the specific environmental qualities of a green bond.

  • 15 Jul 2019

• AIIB partners with Aberdeen Standard on green investing

  

  The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Aberdeen Standard Investments have formed a partnership to develop sustainable debt capital markets in emerging Asia.

  • 12 Jul 2019

• Accent housing group makes tight debut in wider NIP mart

  New issue premiums have been widening somewhat in Europe's corporate bond market in recent weeks, but Accent, a UK housing association, priced its debut bond at a level bankers said was tighter than where comparable issuers were trading.

  • 11 Jul 2019

• Amundi-EIB fund to seek riskier green bonds

  

  Amundi and the European Investment Bank are collaborating on a new €1bn fund aimed at bringing the benefits of green bond funding to smaller issuers in the EU and those with weaker credit quality. They will originate deals through a network of banks.

  • 11 Jul 2019

• Risk-weight fiddling won't save planet

  The pace of growth in green mortgage financing is improving, but it is still woefully inadequate, particularly with respect to covered bonds where there are no price advantages. Fiddling with mortgage risk weights while the world burns will not change behaviour quickly enough.

  • 11 Jul 2019

• Voltalia raises €376m of equity capital to grow power capacity

  

  French renewable energy company Voltalia has finished its €376m rights issue after meeting with more than 100 investors on a deal roadshow, according to a source close to the transaction.

  • 11 Jul 2019

• FCA homes in on bad behaviour

  

  The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has opened a large number of whistleblowing cases related to behaviour and culture at investment banks, according to data obtained by GlobalCapital. This corresponds to a broader push by the regulator to look beyond traditional misconduct issues.

  • 11 Jul 2019

• IFC kicks off funding year with green taps

  

  The International Finance Corp (IFC) started its 2019/20 funding year on Tuesday with a pair of Swedish krona green bond taps in the private market.

  • 11 Jul 2019

• Red Cross volcano bond attracts UK state

  

  The Natural Disaster Fund, backed by the UK government, has a first option to subscribe to a small catastrophe bond to be issued by the Danish Red Cross, which conveys volcano risk.

  • 11 Jul 2019

• SG 'sets a standard' with first green OFH

  

  Société Générale attracted strong demand for its inaugural green Obligations de Financement de l’Habitat on Monday. The green covered bond put the French issuer at the “forefront of positive transformation” and “sets a standard”, said a spokesperson.

  • 11 Jul 2019

• Jan De Nul subsidiary turns bank facility green

  

  Dredging and Maritime Management, a Luxembourg-based company, is the latest borrower to have refinanced its bank debt with green financing, having agreed a €550m deal with lenders.

  • 10 Jul 2019

• BHH just misses negative yield with green Pfandbrief

  

  Berlin Hyp this week attracted strong and broad interest for a green mortgage Pfandbrief that, thanks to a small rise in yields since the deal was mandated, narrowly avoiding being priced with a negative return.

  • 10 Jul 2019

• Updated: Edvantage IPO lands in the middle

  

  Private education provider Edvantage Group has priced its well-oversubscribed Hong Kong IPO in the middle of the price range, raking in HK$712.5m ($91.2m).

  • 10 Jul 2019

• KoGas breaks new ground, sells 10yr sustainability notes

  

  Korea Gas Corp (KoGas) became the first South Korean corporate to sell 10 year sustainability bonds on Tuesday, raising $500m. The country’s issuers are leading the way across Asia in selling environmental, social and governance debt.

  • 10 Jul 2019

• Industry ignores Paris, worsens climate change

  

  Seven out of eight big companies with heavy carbon emissions are still behaving in a way that will lead to disastrous climate change, according to a report on Wednesday. The finding is not surprising, but underlines the reality that the growth of responsible investing has done far too little to make the economy sustainable.

  • 10 Jul 2019