Akuo pockets EUR 60m from selling green bonds

French renewable power supplier Akuo Energy has raised EUR 60 million (USD 73m) from a private offering of green bonds in Europe, it said on Tuesday.

The placement of the securities was almost twice oversubscribed, attracting the interest of both existing and new institutional investors. The bonds bear an annual interest rate of 4.25% and mature in 2026. They are listed on the Euronext Access market in Paris.

Funds from the transaction will be allocated to lower the cost of financing and extend the maturity of Akuo’s debt, the French firm explained. Part of the fresh proceeds will go to refinance a bond that is due in July 2021.

The deal, which is Akuo’s sixth green bond placement since 2015, included an offer to repurchase an EUR-49.3-million bond that the company issued in 2016. Following the repurchase, its outstanding bond maturing on July 12, 2021, stands at EUR 8.3 million, while the nominal amount of its total outstanding bonds totals EUR 165 million. Akuo noted that funds from all these issues are earmarked for financing green power generation and storage assets

Octo Finances structured the EUR-60-million placing, while CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre was Akuo’s legal advisor.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.217)

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