Renewable energy company Greenko has completed placement of $1 billion green bonds in the international market. This bond offer is split across two tranche maturities of 5 and 7 years with a weighted average interest rate of 5.1 per cent. In the process, Greenko joins the league of Asian high yield issuers who have priced $1 billion or above in single transaction. The company’s offer received Ba2 from Moodys and BB- from Fitch – highest rating provided from Rating agencies from India for restrictive group concept.
According to the offer, the issue was split into tranches as planned by the board across – $650 million through NC 3 bonds and $350 million through 5 NC2 structure to de-risk and plan the refinancing comfort across the debt profile of Greenko. This bond offer achieves a new landmark for green bonds and is the largest ever such offer from Asia, sources said. The two tranche structure was designed to keep the interest expense of the Group under control. It would not have significant refinancing risk associated with a single $1billion transaction. In order to maximise the refinancing flexibility, a call option was added after 2 years in the 5-year tranche. The offer was oversubscribed where investors including Goldman Sachs, Blackrock, Fidelity, among others participated.
Source:BL
