EQS-News

VERBUND successfully places new EUR 500 million Green Bond including biodiversity

EQS-News: VERBUND AG / Key word(s): Bond/Issue of Debt VERBUND successfully places new EUR 500 million Green Bond including biodiversity 21.05.2024 / 11:00 CET/CEST The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. VERBUND AG, Austria's leading utility company, has taken another step in its long-standing green finance strategy and successfully issued a green bond including biodiversity. The green bond including biodiversity for EUR 500 million with a term of 7 years was extremely well received by the investor community in a competitive environment and was therefore oversubscribed more than 6 times at the peak. The high demand made it possible to set the interest rate at an attractive level of 3.250%.

VERBUND intends to use the net proceeds from the issuance of the bond for green projects that are in line with the VERBUND Green Financing Framework, updated in May 2024. The green financing framework was examined by the internationally renowned sustainability rating agency ISS ESG and provided with a second party opinion (available at www.iss.esg.com), which confirms compliance with the EU taxonomy (from November 2022), the Green Bond Principles 2021 (with appendix from June 2022) and the EU Green Bond Standards.

VERBUND intends to use up to 90% of the proceeds from the bond to finance the construction of the 380 kV Salzburg high-voltage line (Salzburg line). The Salzburg line is a key section of the 380 kV high-voltage ring in Austria, which forms the basis of the country’s electricity supply and is therefore of great importance for regional, national and European supply security. With the Salzburg line, which leads to a significant increase in the east-west transport capacity within Austria, the renewable energies generated in eastern Austria can be transported to the pumped storage power plants in western Austria. In this way, the management contributes to the implementation of the Austrian energy strategy and to achieving the Austrian climate protection goals.