Latest stories on Socially Responsible Investments

• PG&E’s descent is a climate alarm bell for corporates

  

  Californian utility firm PG&E’s impending bankruptcy filing, on the back of unprecedented liabilities for wildfire damage in the state, is a warning sign that investors may find it impossible to predict how the climate crisis will threaten companies, both quickly and slowly.

  • 15 Jan 2019

• SNCF Réseau plans €2.5bn of green bonds in 2019

  

  SNCF Réseau will aim to boost its volume of green bonds this year in public and private markets, after cutting short its funding last year as a result of potential French railway reforms that became a reality at the end of 2018.

  • 15 Jan 2019

• Philippines looks to issue cat bond

  

  The Philippines is preparing a sovereign catastrophe bond, the World Bank said on Monday. The imperilled country could be the next to use the instrument as insurance against natural disasters.

  • 14 Jan 2019

• Enel and Digital Realty sell first green corporate bonds of 2019

  

  On Friday, American data centre owner Digital Realty sold the first green corporate bond in euros of 2019, but investors did not have long to wait for the second one as Italian energy company Enel also chose to issue in the format.

  • 14 Jan 2019

• Investors snap up first 2019 Korean deal

  

  Investors flocked to Korea Midland Power Co’s (Komipo) green bond on Monday, funnelling $3bn of orders into a $300m deal that offered a quality credit and an attractive tenor to the buy side.

  • 15 Jan 2019

• Brexit untangling could boost HSBC over its discos

  

  The European Banking Authority is sceptical about HSBC’s decision to re-grant capital treatment to some legacy debt instruments last year, but it is unsure about the leverage it can exert over UK authorities in light of the country’s upcoming departure from the EU.

  • 14 Jan 2019

• SNCF Réseau pays big NIP for green, EIB to follow in euro 10s

  

  SNCF Réseau paid a significant new issue premium for its first benchmark green bond since 2017 on Monday. The European Investment Bank will issue its own 10 year euro bond on Tuesday, following trades in sterling and dollars earlier in the year.

  • 14 Jan 2019

• US will try to stop MDBs securitizing

  

  Hopes of a thriving new market for securitizations by multilateral development banks hit a hole in the road in December, when the US Treasury said it disapproved of them and would seek to stop them.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Danske finally looks to finish after Browder claims

  

  Danske Bank was set to complete its bond sale on Friday at a slightly higher price, after activist investor Bill Browder forced a delay due to his comments about its money laundering scandal this week. Before the postponement, Danske had drummed up a large amount of support in the dollar market, as UniCredit did earlier in the week.

  • 11 Jan 2019

• SSA dollar borrowers poised to launch assault on euro market

  

  A stampede of dollar funders in the public sector market could be set to hit the euro market over the coming weeks as the euro/dollar basis swap reached levels not seen since the immediate aftermath of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Deals could come from issuers who are a rare sight in euros and there could even be some debuts, writes Burhan Khadbai.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Bashing World Bank damages US interests

  

  That US president Donald Trump’s administration should pick a fight with the World Bank — and the bevy of other multilateral development banks the US owns shares in — is no surprise.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Byte Me: No security, no problem for Ethereum classic

  

  This week, a major cryptocurrency suffered an attack that strikes at the very heart of what makes cryptocurrencies valuable. And yet, for some reason, holders (or HODLers in the parlance of those in the know) didn't seem to mind. This raises the question: if a hack happens in the forest and no one cares, did it really happen?

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Moody’s mulls rule switch to boost supranational securitizations

  

  Moody’s is looking at amending its rating approach for multilateral development banks and supranationals in the wake of last year’s groundbreaking African Development Bank ‘Room2Run’ risk transfer deal, proposing explicit ratings credit for ‘credit protection features’ for the first time.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Kim exit sparks fears of Trump plant at World Bank

  

  The surprise decision by Jim Yong Kim to quit as president of the World Bank and join a private fund has triggered a race for the top job in development finance, at a time when the US, the Bank's largest shareholder, is hostile to multilateralism. By Phil Thornton

  • 10 Jan 2019

• World Bank risks US wrath with China loans

  

  Research by a US thinktank shows that the World Bank will have to carry out major reform of its lending to China to meet US-driven goals to focus loans on projects with benefits outside wealthy provinces. By Phil Thornton

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Investors in Saudi bond turn blind eye to Khashoggi murder

  

  Saudi Arabia's $7.5bn bond, issued on Wednesday, met with little resistance from investors, despite international condemnation of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi at the country's consulate in Istanbul last year. The lead managers built a $27bn book for the deal.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Triton's Befesa block trade attracts 70 lines

  

  Triton Partners has provided one of the first significant tests of equity blocks market sentiment in 2019, with a €108m sale of shares in Befesa, the German metal recycling firm, that went public in Frankfurt in 2017.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Danske deal hangs on Browder testimony

  

  Danske Bank is waiting until activist investor Bill Browder gives a press conference before deciding whether to proceed with the sale of a senior non-preferred bond. News of the conference derailed the deal on Wednesday, after final terms and a $3bn size had already been set.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Fitch joins ESG caravan with relevance scores

  

  Fitch Ratings has remedied its long lack of a visible response to the rise of environmental, social and governance investing by launching a set of ESG relevance scores.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Barry Callebaut opts for Schuldscheine over bonds

  

  Barry Callebaut, the chocolate company headquartered in Switzerland, has launched a triple tranche Schuldschein a month after a roadshow for a sustainable bond failed to produce a public market result.

  • 10 Jan 2019

• Middle East DCM vacancy filled at BNPP

  

  BNP Paribas has filled the gap it had in Middle East DCM with an internal move of a banker working in sustainable capital markets.

  • 09 Jan 2019

• Austria’s Porr opens Schuldschein market with two deals in one

  

  Austrian construction firm Porr has become the first Schuldschein borrower in 2019, launching a pair of deals totalling €150m that are offered in three maturities. The deal was launched on Monday, and some of it is for green projects.

  • 08 Jan 2019

• Jim Yong Kim quits World Bank as Trump influence fears grow

  

  The unexpected decision by Jim Yong Kim to stand down as World Bank president three years ahead of schedule will raise worries in the development community that Donald Trump will use the opportunity to select a political appointee. By Phil Thornton

  • 07 Jan 2019

• Lilly to pay $8bn for Loxo Oncology as cancer M&A soars

  

  Eli Lilly, the US pharmaceuticals company, has agreed to buy Loxo Oncology for around $8bn, as big ticket consolidation in the drug sector continues apace.

  • 07 Jan 2019

• Danske returns to unsecured after laundering revelations

  

  Danske Bank is looking to issue a senior non-preferred bond, giving primary market investors a chance to judge the institution after developments in a money laundering scandal have raised the prospect of it receiving a large fine from US authorities. Danske follows BNP Paribas, which paid up to print a new deal on Thursday.

  • 04 Jan 2019

• EDF seals green RMB loan from CréditAg China

  

  Electricité de France, the Paris-based electricity company, raised a Rmb122m ($17.8m) one year bilateral loan through Crédit Agricole CIB (China) on December 20.

  • 04 Jan 2019

• China Everbright Greentech seeks HK$800m five year

  

  China Everbright Greentech, an environmental protection service provider under China Everbright International, is testing lenders’ appetite for a HK$800m ($102m) syndicated loan.

  • 04 Jan 2019

• Catastrophes wear out ILS investors

  

  A year and a half of costly insurance losses from the disasters such as the 2017 US hurricanes and last year’s wildfires in California are grinding down investors in catastrophe bonds and other insurance-linked securities. That raises questions over the direction of a market that has experienced consistent growth up to now, writes Jasper Cox.

  • 03 Jan 2019

• Corporates could get double whammy by investing cash in renewable energy assets

  

  Companies usually park their reserves of cash in staid, low-yielding liquid assets. But asset managers are trying to persuade them to invest some of that money differently, in a way that could help them live up to their environmental commitments.

  • 03 Jan 2019

• ECB looks to unlock capital block for Carige

  

  It might be a new year but the same old problems are haunting the Italian banking sector. On Wednesday the European Central Bank took the unprecedented step of appointing administrators to run struggling Banca Carige. The supervisor hopes that the intervention will solve long-standing governance problems, but it may not be enough for the bank to pull off an equity raise and ensure its survival.

  • 03 Jan 2019

• EBRD ups size in euros after coming ahead of pack

  

  The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Thursday nipped in front of an expected glut of euro supply next week and was rewarded as it increased a green bond from its original size target and tightened pricing.

  • 03 Jan 2019

• IFC appoints Borlini as acting treasurer

  

  The International Finance Corp has named Sabrina Borlini as acting vice-president and treasurer while the supranational development agency completes its selection process to replace Jingdong Hua.

  • 03 Jan 2019

• EBRD EUR600m 0% Jan 24 green bond

  • 03 Jan 2019

• Two lenders win big in $74bn BMS Celgene merger

  

  The US’s Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has picked two banks to provide the debt portion of its $74bn acquisition of biotech firm Celgene, in one of the biggest pharmaceuticals mergers in recent years.

  • 03 Jan 2019

• Chinese issuers keep markets busy, more to come

  

  Several Chinese borrowers ventured into the bond market at the end of December, locking up last-minute deals that were mainly supported by anchor orders.

  • 03 Jan 2019

• Dia, Abengoa push rescue plans in attempt to calm market fears

  

  Two troubled Spanish high yield credits, supermarket firm Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación (Dia) and energy group Abengoa, have started the year with new schemes to reassure investors. More Spanish companies may want to follow suit, sources said, as the country faces a surge in political risk in 2019.

  • 02 Jan 2019

• France eyes 30 year syndication in 2019

  

  France will be looking to syndicate its longest benchmark since May 2017 next year, the sovereign announced on Thursday.

  • 20 Dec 2018

• Renewables Infrastructure Group amends sterling loan

  

  London-listed The Renewables Infrastructure Group (Trig) has amended and extended its sterling revolving acquisition facility, cutting the margin and increasing the size.

  • 20 Dec 2018

• Banco Popular bondholders take heart ahead of SNS compensation decision

  

  A Dutch court is expected to rule next year that the former creditors of SNS are entitled to compensation for losses they suffered as a result of the bank’s nationalisation in 2013. This episode is being followed closely by the bondholders that were more recently wiped out in the resolution of Banco Popular, who feel that the two cases have a lot in common.

  • 20 Dec 2018

• EN+ gets sanctions relief but cloud still hangs over Russian issuance

  

  Russian financial markets were greeted with mixed news on Wednesday after the US Treasury announced sanctions relief for EN+ and Rusal on the same day as imposing more sanctions on Russian individuals.

  • 20 Dec 2018