The FINANCIAL — On 6 October, NIB issued a new Nordic–Baltic Blue Bond focusing on water related investments. The five-year SEK 1.5 billion issue will be used to finance projects within water management and protection.. The transaction is NIB’s second Nordic–Baltic Blue Bond launched under the Bank’s Environmental Bond Framework. The use of its proceeds will be allocated to selected wastewater treatment, water pollution prevention and water-related climate change mitigation projects.
“The Baltic Sea is the sea of our member countries. It remains one of the most polluted seas in the world, with eutrophication being by far the largest impact on its ecosystem. This blue bond shows NIB’s continued commitment on protecting our water resources – it is only through constant, firm action that we can restore the much-needed health of our water ecosystems,” says Luca De Lorenzo, Head of Sustainability and Mandate at NIB.
The order book of the transaction surged and the spread was set at MS + 2 basis points, alongside a book update of SEK 2.5 billion consisting 13 investors, among others including the Folksam Group, Svenska Handelsbanken Asset Management, Nordea Asset Management, Robur Asset Management, Skandia Liv and Storebrand Asset Management. Joint lead managers for this transaction are Danske Bank and Swedbank.
“A great outcome for NIB returning to the SEK market for their second Blue Bond transaction following the inaugural issue in 2019. The market had been looking forward to this issue for some time so we were not surprised to see the level of interest this transaction generated enabling a very attractive pricing for NIB. We are very proud to have participated in this important transaction supporting water measures in the Nordic-Baltic region,” comments Gustav Landström, Global Head of SSA Origination at Danske Bank.
Helena Lindahl, Portfolio Manager at Storebrand Asset Management, who were amongst the participating investors, says: “There is no question that NIB is on the cutting edge for innovation in how to finance climate change. We at Storebrand are happy to participate also in this second Nordic-Baltic Blue bond following up their international recognized and awarded inaugural blue bond last year. How can we get more issuers and more investors to address SDG 6?”
In terms of the geographical breakdown, Swedish investors took the majority of the orders with 95%, 4% went to Finnish investors, and 1% to other European investors. By investor type, the largest share went to fund managers with 69%, pension and insurance funds had 30% and retail investors had 1%.
