NEWS
Green edge: ANZ wins race for first green loan
SHANE WHITE, CONTENT MANAGER, INSTITUTIONAL, ANZ | JANUARY 2019
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ANZ has closed a $A170 million facility with ICPF, the first of its kind in Australia.
ANZ has funded Australia’s first ever green loan after closing a deal with Investa Commercial Property Fund.
The $A170 million facility has been officially recognised by the Climate Bonds Initiative, the first Australian agreement verified under the CBI criteria.
The voluntary criteria relate to the use and management of funds secured from the loan, including a stipulation new buildings must fall within the leading 15 per cent for carbon intensity in their respective cities.
ICPF has aligned its entire portfolio with the CBI low-carbon building requirements, allowing it to deploy the funds from the ANZ deal across all of its assets. The proceeds will be use to refinance an existing, revolving debt facility, ICPF said.
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“We were very pleased to work with Investa again to help expand their green bond framework into green loans.”
ANDREW LAWSON, Director, Sustainable Finance, ANZ
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“ICPF has achieved another milestone … following their success as the first corporate green bond issuer in Australia in 2017,” ANZ Director, Sustainable Finance Andrew Lawson said. “We were very pleased to work with Investa again to help expand their green bond framework into green loans.”
Green finance is rapidly growing accross Australia and New Zealand, driven by over 400 environmentally-conscious infrastructure investment opportunities in the pipeline.
Green bond issuance in Australia had reached $A8.3 billion by September 2018, driven by banks and sub-sovereign issuers. Australia was the second-largest green bond market in the Asia Pacific region in the first half of calendar 2018 and twelfth globally.
In February, ANZ launched and priced its first Sustainable Development Goals bond in the European wholesale debt capital markets, raising €750 million to fund loans and expenditures that directly promote nine of the United Nations’ 17 SDGs.
Shane White is Content Manager, Institutional at ANZ
You can read more about our sustainable finance and its future HERE.
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