UniCredit Bank Austria successfully places 500 million Euro Green Covered Bond
- UniCredit Bank Austria has successfully issued its first Green Mortgage Covered Bond under UniCredit's Sustainability Bond Framework
- High demand: order book was oversubscribed multiple times
- Bond proceeds are designated for financing or refinancing green buildings
UniCredit Bank Austria has successfully placed its first Green Covered Bond on the capital market, reaching another milestone in its sustainability strategy. UniCredit Bank Austria's Green Covered Bond with a total volume of € 500 million and a maturity of 6 years was issued under UniCredit Group's Sustainability Bond Framework. The bond is targeted at institutional investors.
Demand for UniCredit Bank Austria's green bond was high. The bookbuilding process, which generated high demand shortly after opening, reached a total amount of 1.3 billion euros. The order book was thus oversubscribed multiple times.
The interest rate was initially set at 10 basis points above the 6-year Euro mid-swap rate and subsequently reduced by 4 basis points, so that the final spread was set at mid-swap plus 6 basis points.
Robert Zadrazil, CEO of UniCredit Bank Austria: "By issuing this Green Covered Bond, we are again sending a clear signal of how central sustainability is to our corporate strategy. The commitment to the energy transition and sustainable business practices is bringing about a fundamental change in society and influencing every single area of our lives. As a bank, we have a central role to play in the transformation towards a CO2 -reduced economy. Channelling the flow of funds into promising, climate-friendly industries, activities and initiatives is and will be the central joint challenge of the future.”
Philipp Gamauf, CFO of UniCredit Bank Austria: "The issue of UniCredit Bank Austria's green bond was a great success on the international capital market. The green bond was multiple times oversubscribed. We are very pleased about the high demand, this issue shows how much international investors are convinced of UniCredit Bank Austria's sustainable course and how high the continuing interest in sustainable financial products is."
The green bond has an Aaa rating from Moodys and was issued to institutional investors. The investor base is composed of 54 investors, with 39 percent from Germany, 20 percent from Austria, 12 percent from Benelux and the remainder well diversified across other countries and regions. The debt securities were distributed across different categories of institutional investors such as banks (30 per cent), asset managers/funds (47 per cent), central banks and official institutions (23 per cent).
The bond proceeds are used for the financing or refinancing of green buildings that are registered in UniCredit Bank Austria's mortgage cover pool and comply with the eligibility criteria set out in UniCredit's Sustainability Bond Framework.
The issue underlines UniCredit's strong commitment to sustainability and the importance of ESG (Environment / Social / Governance) for the Group. The issuance was made under UniCredit Group's Sustainability Bond Framework, which allows UniCredit S.p.A., UniCredit Bank AG, UniCredit Bank Austria and all subsidiaries of the UniCredit Group to issue green, social and sustainable bonds as a recurring part of the UniCredit Group's funding.
UniCredit was mandated as Sole Green Structurer and ING, LBBW, Natixis, Raiffeisen Bank International and UniCredit as Joint Lead Managers.
Enquiries
UniCredit Bank Austria Press Office
Franziska Schenker, Tel.: +43 (0) 5 05 05-51417;
Email: franziska.schenker@unicreditgroup.at