Case study

EUROFIMA sees record investor support for Green Bond

11 Nov 2022 . 2 min read

Financing railway bodies since 1956

EUROFIMA has a non-profit mission to support the development of public passenger rail transportation in Europe and to support the railway bodies which are its shareholders in renewing and modernising their equipment.

Established in 1956, based on an international treaty between 14 sovereign states, EUROFIMA today is composed of 25 member states and 26 shareholders. While it was originally founded for a period of 50 years, an extraordinary General Assembly in 1984 made the decision to extend this period for an additional 50 years, until 2056.

EUROFIMA’s Green Bond Framework, which received a Second Party Opinion from Sustainalytics, outlines that Green Bond proceeds are exclusively used to finance or refinance purchases, modernisation and refurbishments of Eligible Green Assets owned and in operation by EUROFIMA’s shareholder railways and/or their affiliates for passenger transport only. Rolling stock equipment qualifying as Green Eligible Assets are locomotives, multiple units and coaches. The source of energy to power the rolling stock is electrical, battery or hybrid (both battery and electrical).

EUROFIMA achieves largest ever EUR orderbook for its 9-year €500 million Green Bond

Seeking to issue a new 9-year €500 million no-grow Green Bond, EUROFIMA asked NatWest to support the transaction in the role of Joint Lead Manager. The NatWest team had also lead-managed EUROFIMA’s 5-year EUR bond in the summer.

Following French and German holidays and successfully identifying a viable issuance window prior to FED and Bank of England central bank meetings, EUROFIMA announced its first green syndication for 2022 to the market, with order books growing quickly to over €1 billion. This allowed the issuer to tighten the spread, which didn’t weaken investors’ appetite: the final order volume stood at over €1.5 billion, representing EUROFIMA’s largest EUR book ever, surpassing the previous orderbook record of €1.25 billion achieved in the organisation’s conventional bond transaction this summer. The final coupon for the green bond was set at 3.125%.

75 investors participated in the issuance, with Central Banks and Official Institutions across the globe representing the bulk of the demand, receiving 44% of the final allocations, followed by Asset Managers (27.2%), Insurance / Pension Funds (15.7%) and Banks (13.1%). Regional investor distribution was equally very diverse with 29% of the transaction going to investors in Germany/Austria/Switzerland followed by Asia with 18%, 17% going to UK/Ireland, 14% other Europe, 9% to North America, 7% to France and BeNeLux, and 5% to Middle East.

Tackling climate change central to NatWest’s purpose-led strategy

Damien Carde, Head of Frequent Borrower Group DCM, NatWest, commented: “We congratulate our customer, EUROFIMA, on this very successful green issuance, which is particularly notable given the challenging market backdrop. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges our generation faces, and for NatWest it’s central to our purpose-led strategy. We have a significant responsibility, and the ability, to encourage, enable and lead the way in helping businesses and organisations transition to a net-zero carbon economy.”

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