Focus on the A2A stock (Moody’s Baa2/negative – Standard & Poor’s BBB/negative), after the company announced on Friday evening that it had successfully placed a new 500 million euro Green Bond with an 11-year term.
“The issue has attracted great interest, receiving orders for approximately 2.2 billion euros, approximately 4 times the amount offered. The bond, intended for institutional investors and issued under the Euro Medium Term Notes Programme, is based on the Group’s Sustainable Finance Framework, the set of guidelines that strengthen the link between financial strategy and sustainable strategy”.
A2A announced in the note that “the security was placed at an issue price of 98.824%, will have an annual yield of 4.513% and a coupon of 4.375%, with a spread of 167 basis points compared to the reference rate mid-swap”.
“With this bond issue, A2A will finance projects in the field of energy transition and the circular economy eligible for the European Taxonomy and envisaged in our Business Plan – commented Luca Moroni, CFO of A2A – The transaction further demonstrates A2A’s commitment in implement its strategy, which has among its objectives the increase of the share of sustainable finance to 90% by 2030”.
“The net proceeds deriving from the emission will go to finance Eligible Green Projects: strategic circular economy and energy transition projects linked to the development of renewables, the environmental sector, energy efficiency and electricity grids defined within the Sustainable Finance Framework of A2A. The Group has selected the projects eligible for the European Taxonomy – the EU regulation which lists the economic activities that can be considered sustainable”.
“A2A also undertakes to indicate, as part of the Green Bond proceeds allocation reporting prepared pursuant to the Sustainable Finance Framework, also the actual amount of investments aligned with the European Taxonomy that will be financed. The securities are governed by English law and its admission to listing on the regulated market of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange will be requested from 3 February 2023, subject to the signing of the relative contractual documentation”.
A2A informed that “the placement operation was managed by Citigroup and Crédit Agricole CIB as Global Coordinators, and by BBVA, BofA Securities, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole CIB, Goldman Sachs International, Intesa Sanpaolo (IMI Division CIB), Mediobanca, Santander, Société Générale and UniCredit as Joint Bookrunners”.