(Finance) – Credito Emiliano (believe), one of the main Italian banking groups and among the most solid in Europe, today successfully launched its second green bond issue, intended for institutional and professional investors, for an amount of 400 million euro. The issue, in Senior Non Preferred (“SNP”) format, represents the third ESG instrument launched on the market by the Group since the beginning of 2022.
The bond represents the first instrument issued under the new EMTN Programme aimed at supporting the Group’s institutional funding and its continuous growth in size.
The transaction has won great favor from the market with a request of almost 6 times the offer.
The issue took place within the framework of Credem’s Green, Social & Sustainability Bonds Framework, recently updated at the beginning of May 2023, which allows the Group to issue bonds intended for the financing and/or refinancing of assets with a positive impact in terms of environmental and social sustainability. In detail, the proceeds of the new issue will be allocated to the financing and refinancing of green assets, helping to favor the country’s economic transition and, consequently, to the achievement of the sustainability objectives that the Group has set itself as part of its business plan .
The green bond, with an expected Ba1 rating from Moody’s and BBB- from Fitch, will have a duration of 6 years, with the possibility of early repayment in the penultimate year, in order to maximize efficiency from a regulatory point of view. The bond’s final spread is 250 basis points above the reference Mid Swap rate. There is a payment of one coupon annual rate of 5.625%.
Credem’s bond issue was supported by a syndicate of banks with BNP Paribas (EMTN Program Arranger), Barclays, Crédit Agricole CIB (Green Structuring Advisor) and IMI-Intesa San Paolo as Joint Bookrunner.
55% of the issue was placed with Italian institutional investors, while the remaining 45% was placed with foreign investors, mainly in the UK and Ireland (14%), Germany and Austria (12%) and France (7%).
In terms of type of investor, companies of asset managers (45%), banks (34%) and insurance companies (11%) participated in the issue subscription. Strong participation from ESG investors for Credem’s first SNP Green issue, equal to more than half of the total placed.