(Finance) – UniCredit today successfully issued a 1 billion Euro fix-to-floater Senior Non Preferred Green Bond with maturity of 5 years and the possibility of early redemption (call) after 4 years, aimed at institutional investors.
The bond – reads a note from the bank – was distributed to various categories of institutional investors such as funds and insurance companies (75%), banks and private banks (13%), hedge funds (6%), supranational entities (6 %). Overall, 78% of the bonds were placed with investors with an ESG / SRI / Green focus. The demand came mainly from: France (27%), United Kingdom (17%), Germany / Austria (15%), Italy (14%), Nordic countries (12%), Iberian Peninsula (7%), Switzerland ( 3%) and others (5%).
The issue follows a process of book building which has raised demand for over 2.6 billion euros from more than 200 investors globally. Thanks to this, the level initially communicated to the market of around 315bps above the 4-year mid-swap rate has been revised and set at 285bps. Consequently, the annual coupon was determined at 5.85%, with an issue / re-offer price of 99.948%.
The issue of Senior Non-Preferred Green Bonds took place within the UniCredit Sustainability Bond Framework published in 2021 and aligned with the Green and Social Bond Principles and the Sustainability Bond Guidelines of the International Capital Market Association. Annual reporting will ensure the transparent allocation of proceeds and monitoring also in terms of impact obtained.
The proceeds are intended to finance specific projects in the field of renewable energy, clean transport and green buildings as outlined in the aforementioned Framework. The issue aims to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) number 7 (Affordable and clean energy), number 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and number 11 (Sustainable cities and communities).
This issue further underlines UniCredit’s strong commitment to sustainability and the strategic importance of ESG issues for the Group.
The issue is part of the Funding Plan 2022 and once again confirms UniCredit’s ability to access the market in different formats.
UniCredit Bank AG acted as Global Coordinator and Joint Bookrunner together with Barclays, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Santander and UBS.
The listing will take place on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.