Green Bond

Société du Grand Paris came to the market with its first Green Bond in 2021. This May-46 €2bn 0.875% offering is the seventh transaction off their “Green Euro Medium Term note” programme, the first ever 100% Green EMTN ever created. Over 120 investors showed interest, with total demand surpassing €4.7bn (excl. JLM interest).

Despite the impact of COVID-19, emerging market green bond issuance totalled $40 billion in 2020. Underpinned by supportive market fundamentals, emerging market green bond issuance is expected to reach $100 billion by 2023. Since 2012, 43 emerging markets have issued green bonds, amounting to $226 billion in issuance

On Monday 12th April 2021, EUROFIMA successfully priced a new EUR 250mn 20-year Green Bond, which is its longest outstanding maturity. The transaction marked EUROFIMA’s first visit to the primary market in 2021 as well as its first Green Bond issuance since the update of its Green Bond Framework published on 7th April 2021.

The euro-denominated, open-ended green bond fund for central banks builds on the success of the first, US dollar-denominated green bond fund. The two funds belong to the BIS’s green bond fund initiative and invest in high-quality bonds that comply with international green standards and finance environmentally friendly projects.

Dedicated social bond funds, such as the social bond strategy announced recently by Amundi, may face heightened single-name concentration risks as a result unless they have latitude to invest in a wider array of instruments than just social bonds.