Sustainable US. Private Placements to finance TransMilenio low-carbon bus fleets

1-minute read 

 

Natixis acted as Sole Placement Agent, Sole Sustainability Coordinator and Joint Ratings Advisor for the issuance of $126 million in Sustainable senior secured notes under a US Private Placement format. This is one of a handful of USPPs to ever be issued in Colombia, the first Colombian USPP to ever be issued as a Sustainable Bond and Climate Bonds Certified, and the first USPP to ever finance Transmilenio concessions.

 

Transaction highlights

The 10-year notes were issued under 3 separate Note Purchase Agreements against the future cash flows of 3 separate concessionaires. The proceeds were used to finance the acquisition of low-emissions bus fleets from Scania to be supplied to the TransMilenio bus transit system in Bogotá, Colombia.

 

Key Stakeholders

TransMilenio S.A. is a public entity in charge of organizing and managing the Bogotá Integrated Public Transport System (“SITP”). TransMilenio distributes the concessions for the supply of buses. As part of the continuous improvement, TransMilenio has decided to renew part of its bus fleet. Three concession agreements have been awarded to GMASIVO 10 S.A.S. GMASIVO 16 S.A.S. and GRAN AMÉRICAS USME PROVISIÓN S.A.S. (the “Concessionaires”) to supply a fleet of municipal buses. Each concessionaire will supply a fleet of low carbon (<50g CO2e per passenger km) Scania municipal buses to the SITP Zonal Line against fixed monthly COP-denominated payments from TransMilenio, backed by the District of Bogotá.

 

Sustainability features

The Sustainable financing was aligned with both the Green Bond and the Social Bond Principles. The sustainable financing also benefits from Climate Bond Standards verification (v.3.0). ISS ESG has been appointed as Second-Party Opinion provider to assess the Sustainability Framework and as the approved verifier to perform the pre-issuance and post-issuance verification processes under the Climate Bonds Standard.