Dutch giant ABP amongst buyers of €4.5bn Belgian sovereign green bond

Dutch civil service pension giant ABP says it was among the buyers of Belgium’s inaugural sovereign green bond.

The €409bn fund has announced it invested €360m in 15-year green bonds from the Belgian state, which aims to use the proceeds to combat climate change.

The 1.25%, €4.5bn issue matures on April 22 2033, according to the Belgian Debt Agency. Belgium is rated Aa3/AA/AA-. Belgian sovereign bonds are known as OLOs (Obligation Linéaire).

The agency said that joint leads and book runners were Barclays, BNP Paribas Fortis, Crédit Agricole CIB, ING and JP Morgan. The co-lead group comprised Citi, KBC Bank, Morgan Stanley, Nomura International and SG CIB. The selling group was ABN-Amro, Belfius, Rabobank and Scotia Capital.

The Green OLO framework was presented to the investor community recently with a pan-European roadshow.In July last year ABP invested more than €100m in French sustainable transport bonds from rail company SNCF Réseau.

Separately, the Madrid stock exchange, the Bolsa de Madrid, said it has admitted new 10-year sustainable bonds worth €1bn issued by the Madrid regional government. Their annual coupon, or interest rate, is 1.773%.

BBVA, Barclays, HSBC, ING and Santander were Joint Bookrunners, the exchange said – adding this is the third issue of sustainable bonds of the Madrid region to be admitted to trading on BME´s Fixed Income market in the last two years, amounting to €1.7bn in all.

It went on to say that the new bond is issued within the framework of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals that includes use of funds for projects on health, education, social services, promotion of employment, public transport and housing.