Sustainable Finance
Atlas Renewable Energy Prints Largest Latin American Solar Green Private Placement
Atlas Renewable Energy sold a USD253mn private placement in US markets this week to refinance debt linked to two solar PV power plants in Chile, the largest US solar green private placement out of Latin America to date.
4 Mar 2020
Regulatory Tweak Could Boost Russian Corporate Green Loans Pipeline
A new mechanism to compensate for the “green premium” on loans could incentivise businesses to tap the nascent market.
26 Feb 2020
The Growth of Private Credit in EM Risks Being Accompanied by Looser Underwriting Standards, Posing ESG Risks
While the outlook for private credit appears bright, the growth of the asset class – particularly in emerging markets – in combination with record-low global yields risks prompting some underwriters to loosen their underwritings and structuring standards as they rush to deploy capital and generate yield, Allianz Global Head of Private Debt Sebastian Schroff says.
25 Feb 2020
Appealing Risk-Return Profile Pushing Green Bonds into Mainstream – NN Investment
Market data suggests the asset class shows (still) higher volatility but also higher returns in Euro market as investors increasingly choose to go “green”.
25 Feb 2020
IIF: Frontier Market Debt, Driven by Government Borrowing, Hit New All-Time Highs in 2019
Rising budget deficits are a cause for concern, particularly as climate-related risks accumulate, the IIF warned in its latest report.
24 Feb 2020
Tension Between SDGs Raises Questions About the Growth of Sustainable Finance in South Africa
Given the size and depth of South Africa’s domestic capital markets, many see the country as the continent’s frontrunner for developing the sustainable finance segment. But the key to addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is in a transition plan likely to be found in the narrow space between the precarious state of the economy, on the one hand, and the country’s worrying carbon…
18 Feb 2020
Sovcombank Sees Opportunities in Russia’s National Projects, Retail, and Green Finance
A number of large Russian banks were briefly teetering on the edge three years ago, as the industry was hit by a wave of bankruptcies and bad headlines. What followed was a five-year cleanse of the sector by the Central Bank and affiliated government agencies, and those lenders that came out unscathed at the end of it are now reaping the benefits of a less crowded and more stable industry. One of…
14 Feb 2020
Termocandelaria CEO, CFO on Colombia’s Rising Energy Capacity, Funding Plans, and Importance of ESG for Renewables Companies
In January 2019 Termocandelaria, the largest non-hydro power generation company in Colombia tapped the international capital markets for the first time with a USD410mn offering of 7.875% senior notes due 2029, marking the first corporate high-yield bond out of Latin America that year. A year on to the day, Termocandelaria re-tapped its existing bond for a further USD186mn at an impressive 110% of…
6 Feb 2020
AXA Sees Greater Investment Opportunities in EM Green Bonds – But ESG Still Needs Improvement
Emerging market green bond investment opportunities are looking increasingly attractive to global institutional investors – but EM issuers still need to continue improving on the ESG front in order to improve global investor penetration, AXA senior economist Irina Topa-Serry says.
3 Feb 2020
Strong Link Between Prosperity and Emissions Undermines Sustainability Push
The research casts doubt on feasibility of combining high economic growth targets with sustainability objectives, with potential implications on development of “green finance” markets.
29 Jan 2020