| UniCredit successfully issues its inaugural Senior Preferred Green Bond for EUR 1 billion Accelerating on the bank’s commitment to sustainability Follows the launch of a Group-wide Sustainability Bond Framework UniCredit S.p.A. has successfully issued its inaugural fix-to-floater Senior Preferred Green Bond for EUR 1.0 billion with an 8-year maturity and a call after year 7, targeted to institutional investors. The issuance follows a book building process that gathered strong demand of more than EUR 3.25 billion from more than 200 investors globally. The initial guidance of 120bps over the 7-year mid-swap rate has been tightened by 30bps, achieving a final spread of 90bps, resulting in a fixed coupon of 0.80% paid annually, with an issue/re-offer price of 99.953%. The bond has been distributed to different institutional investor categories such as funds and asset managers (57%), insurance and pension funds (29%), banks and private banks (9%), official institutions (5%). Overall, 87% of the bonds were placed with investors with an ESG/SRI/Green focus. The demand came from the following main regions: France (30%), Germany/Austria (20%), UK (13%), Benelux (9%), Iberia (7%), Italy (7%), Nordics (6%), Swiss (5%) and other (3%). Commenting on the issuance, Andrea Orcel, CEO of UniCredit, said: “I want this inaugural Green Bond to signal that ESG is core to our business and will be fully embedded in the new strategic plan that we will announce in the second half of 2021.” The bond proceeds are dedicated to fund renewable energy, clean transportation, and green buildings with the aim of supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) number 7 (Affordable & Clean Energy), number 9 (Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure) and number 11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities). The issuance further underlines UniCredit’s strong commitment to sustainability and the strategic importance of ESG for the Group. The inaugural green bond issuance took place under UniCredit’s newly established Sustainability Bond Framework. The framework allows the Group’s main issuers UniCredit S.p.A., UniCredit Bank AG and UniCredit Bank Austria to issue green, social, and sustainability bonds, which will be a recurring part of the Group’s funding activity going forward. The Framework is in line with the 2021 version of the Green and Social Bond Principles and the Sustainability Bond Guidelines of the International Capital Market Association. Annual reporting will ensure the transparent allocation and tracking of proceeds also in terms of impact achieved. UniCredit Bank AG was mandated as the Green Structurer and acted as Sole Bookrunner and Lead Manager for the placement. BBVA, Cr dit Agricole CIB, IMI-Intesa Sanpaolo, ING, Natixis, NatWest Markets acted as Joint Lead Managers (no books). The bond was issued under UniCredit S.p.A.’s EUR 60 billion EMTN programme with the following expected ratings: Baa1 (Stable) from Moody’s, BBB (Stable) from S&P and BBB- (Stable) from Fitch. It will rank pari passu with the outstanding Senior Preferred debt of the issuer. Listing will be on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. UniCredit’s ESG progress to date has seen the bank reduce its GHG emissions by 60% as of 2020 (Scope 1 and 2) compared to the 2008 baseline with the long-term target of an 80% reduction by 2030. UniCredit is also on track to become completely paperless and remove all single-use plastic from its buildings by 2023. In addition, in 2020 we updated our coal policy with a commitment to, together with our clients, phase out coal sector financing by 2028, and continue to work to align our corporate lending portfolios with the climate scenarios of the Paris agreement. Furthermore, UniCredit is a leader in sustainable finance targeting a Top 5 league table position in EMEA combined Green Bonds and ESG-linked loans by 2023. Milan 28 June 2021 About UniCredit UniCredit is a simple successful pan-European Commercial Bank, with a fully plugged in CIB, delivering a unique Western, Central and Eastern European network to its extensive client franchise. UniCredit offers both local and international expertise to its clients, providing them with unparalleled access to leading banks in its 13 core markets through its European banking network: Italy, Germany, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. Leveraging on an international network of representative offices and branches, UniCredit serves clients in another 16 countries worldwide. Enquiries: [email protected] [email protected] | |
