SBAB First Swedish bank to issue a green bond
SBAB is the first Swedish bank to issue a green bond. Substantial demand in the capital markets for responsible investments led to the fact that the issue quickly was oversubscribed.
On 16th June SBAB issued its first green bond of SEK 2,000,000,000 with a 5-year maturity. Demand for capital investments based on the “Principles for Responsible Investments” has increased steadily over the past few years
"SBAB has clear goals for sustainable business and we work consistently and determinedly to promote sustainability as an intrinsic element of our operations. By issuing a green bond, we are continuing efforts aimed at promoting a more sustainable cycle of funds – raising, as well as lending green funds. In the long-term, this also means supporting the achievement of national and international climate goals,” says Klas Danielsson, CEO of SBAB, and continues:
“Issuing a green bond provides an opportunity for us to diversify our investor base and further deepen investor dialogue regarding how we jointly can promote sustainability efforts and development in the financial and capital markets.”
Demand from investors was large, and the order book was quickly oversubscribed. 87% of the interest came from dedicated green investors and 35% of the interest came from international accounts. Examples of investors participating in the transaction are: AMF Fonder, Andra AP-fonden, Captor on behalf of AI Pension, Danske Invest and Länsförsäkringar Fonder, If Skadeförsäkring AB, KfW, Linköpings Kommun, MIROVA, Naventi Fonder, SPP Storebrand, Tredje AP-fonden and Öhman Fonder.
“It's very satisfying that a Swedish bank finally has taken the step to issue a green bond. SBAB’s green bond fits perfectly into our exposure in SPP Green Bondfund. We’re now hoping that additional Swedish banks will follow SBAB’s example and commit both to additional green lending as well as to financing it with green bonds”, stated by Helena Lindahl, SPP Storebrand.
The funds raised by SBAB will exclusively be used to finance or refinance properties that fulfil a number of energy-efficiency criteria or alternatively hold a selectively defined environmental certification. A framework based on the Green Bond Principles has been prepared and sets out the preconditions for the issuance of green bonds by SBAB and SBAB’s onward lending of these funds. The framework has been examined by an independent climate and environmental research institute, CICERO (Center or International Climate and Environmental Research - Oslo). The framework is available in full together with an opinion from CICERO at sbab.se/IR.
SEB acted as advisor for the framework and as arranger for the bond issue.
For further information, please contact:
Karin Hellgren, Head of Public Relations, SBAB
Telephone: +46 (0)706-68 38 24, E-mail: karin.hellgren@sbab.se
Fredrik Jönsson, Head of Treasury, SBAB
Telephone: +46 (0)8-614 38 22, E-mail: fredrik.jonsson@sbab.se
SBAB’s business idea is to apply innovation and consideration to offer loans and savings products to private individuals, tenant-owner associations and property companies in Sweden. SBAB was founded in 1985 and is owned by the Swedish state. SBAB has about 350,000 customers and 450 employees. SBAB had Sweden’s most satisfied residential mortgage customers in 2014 and 2015, according to Svenskt Kvalitetsindex (SKI, Swedish Quality Index). Read more at sbab.se, twitter.com/sbabbank, facebook.com/sbabbank.
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