Iberdrola, a Spain-based electricity company, announced that it had issued a green bond for 335 million Swiss francs (€350 million) in two “tranches” to diversify its financing sources.
The first tranche or part, for 145 million Swiss francs, was placed over four years with an interest rate of 1.38%, and the second tranche, for 190 million Swiss francs over seven years, was for 1.57%.
Strong investor demand allowed Iberdrola to achieve lower-than-expected financing costs, tightening spreads to 47 basis points for the four-year tranche (initially targeted at 50-55 basis points) and 62 basis points for the seven-year tranche (from an initial range of 65-70 basis points).
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The transaction follows a recent interest rate cut by the Swiss Central Bank. This transaction marks the first Swiss franc deal since 2012 that Iberdola has made.
The investment also marks the first green bond placement in the Swiss market.
Apart from this milestone, Iberdrola also holds other related records. For instance, it is the first private group in the world to issue green bonds.
In addition, it has more than €21 billion of outstanding green bonds.
The release mentions that UBS and Deutsche Bank were the other financial institutions involved in processing this transaction.