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Voltalia’s €200 million green convertible bond : a successful inaugural offering
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On January 5th 2021, Voltalia, an international player in renewable energies, launched its inaugural Green Convertible Bond into new shares and/or exchangeable for existing shares of the Company (OCEANEs Vertes) due 2025. This transaction reaffirms the company’s commitment to aligning its renewable energy business and financing with its corporate sustainability commitments and values.
An innovative structure
Before 2020, only two green convertible bonds were issued – namely, Sumitomo Forestry (Japan) in 2018 and Link REIT (Hong Kong) in 2019. Since May 2020, nine companies have issued green convertible bonds, representing $5.9 bn of outstanding green convertible bonds issued so far. Of note, Schneider Electric launched the first sustainability-linked convertible bond in November 2020, which links the performance to three KPIs to the cost of the coupon paid to investors.
The innovative structure of Voltalia’s overarching Green & Sustainability-linked Financing Framework combines both use-of-proceeds and sustainability linked formats:
- the use-of proceeds format focuses on the core business of Voltalia through investments in the development of new renewable energy and storage projects;
- the sustainability-linked format focuses on the corporate strategy in terms of sustainability performance and management, taking a dynamic approach over the medium to long-term perspective.
This two-leg framework reflects the whole sustainable finance potential for Voltalia, including its positioning as a pure renewable energy player and its strong ESG commitment.
This inaugural transaction activates the use-of-proceeds format, dedicated to financing Eligible Green Projects defined as investments and/or acquisitions in development, construction, operation, and maintenance of renewable energy technologies (wind, solar, biomass, hydro or hybrid2) as well as storage units.
Main terms of the Bonds
The Bonds were issued at a rate of 1.0% from the issue date. The nominal unit value of the Bonds has been set at €31.83 corresponding to a premium of 37.5% above the reference share price, which was set as the clearing price of the concurrent placement of the company’s existing shares. The number of shares sold as part of the Concurrent Accelerated Bookbuilding represented approximately 0.8 million shares.
Natixis acted as Global Coordinator, Joint Bookrunner, and Sole Green Structurer in the transaction.
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