Sustainable Finance
CASE STUDY: Cape Town Wins Race to Issue Africa’s First Municipal Green Bond
The City of Cape Town successfully placed ZAR1bn in new green bonds this Summer to fund a raft of sustainability initiatives in the city, proving once again that cities are a natural fit for sustainable finance instruments.
1 Nov 2017
CASE STUDY: After a Year of Preparation, ACWA Power Comes Through with Blockbuster Debut Bond
Saudi Arabia-based ACWA Power placed a USD814mn bond with a 22-year maturity in the international markets in May, an impressive debut following a year of planning and structuring. The transaction allowed the company to diversify its investor base and extend its maturity profile.
16 Oct 2017
Beyond Green Bonds, Sustainability Certification Brings Broader, Deeper Benefits
Since 2012, Vigeo Eiris has provided almost 60 second party opinions on ESG transactions for a diversity of issuers and sectors – about 20% of the market’s supply as of 2016 – which gives the company a privileged position from which to observe the market, both developed and emerging. The company was the first opinion provider for a corporate ESG issuance, launched by Air Liquide, and has worked…
12 Sept 2017
Case Study: Investors Splash Out on Rotoplas’ Debut MXN2bn Sustainability Bond
Mexican water products manufacturer Grupo Rotoplas saw tight pricing on the company’s – and the Latin American market’s – first sustainability bond to date, a very strong debut made more impressive by the fact that it was launched amidst one of the weakest primary markets Mexico has ever experienced.
7 Sept 2017
Why Green Sukuk Could be a Growth Driver for Islamic Finance
Created to fund projects with positive environmental benefits, green bonds have become rapidly popular in Europe and Asia while gaining traction in the United States.
4 Sept 2017
Azure Power CEO on Building Green into Corporate DNA
Azure Power’s recent USD500mn green bond due 2022 won accolades for being the first solar green bond, paving the way for a wealth of new issuance in the country. We speak with Inderpreet Wadhwa, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Azure Power about the issuance process, whether the costs of issuing outweigh the benefits, and how issuers can build being green into their corporate DNA.
31 Aug 2017
Emerging Market Regulators Make Strides Building Green Bond Momentum
Growing support for market-driven policies aimed at facilitating green issuance has created important wins for the sustainable finance segment, especially in emerging market countries like China, India, and Mexico. But with the bulk of those policies, at their core, fixated on determining what qualifies as ‘green’, key questions about industry standards – and the best approach to applying them –…
25 Aug 2017
Exchanges Play a Crucial Role in Developing the Sustainable Finance Market
Stock exchanges play a crucial role as an intermediary between investors and issuers, but their role in the sustainable finance market – as platform and infrastructure providers, as facilitators of cross-market standards development, and as educators bringing visibility to new asset classes – is so much wider than that. We speak with Robert Scharfe, CEO of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, a leader…
22 Aug 2017
Benefits, Standards, and Price Harmonisation in the Sustainable Finance Market
MUFG has a wealth of expertise in energy and natural resource infrastructure finance, which lends itself quite nicely to understanding how to measure risk in areas ripe for green bonds and similar instruments, and the bank is of course very active in bringing borrowers into the green bond market. We speak with Geraint Thomas, Executive Director at MUFG and leader of the bank’s green capital…
11 Aug 2017
Africa Credit Markets Brief: June 29 – July 12
South Africa’s Myriad International Holdings tapped the international markets – Eskom signed loan agreement with China Development Bank – Private sector activity in South Africa fell in June – Nigeria sells T-Bills worth NGN31.9bn – Nigeria’s government intervenes to avert the collapse of Etisalat Nigeria – Kenya delays plans for maiden sukuk – Chad attempts to delay loan repayment – Gabon gets…
12 Jul 2017