Masdar raises USD 750m from maiden green bond offering

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC, better known as Masdar, has successfully completed its first green bond issuance, raising USD 750 million (EUR 669m) for investment in “dark green” renewable energy projects.

The UAE’s clean energy major announced this on Wednesday and said that the issuance was oversubscribed 5.6 times with an orderbook peaking at USD 4.2 billion.

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Between launch and final terms, the pricing of the 10-year senior unsecured notes has tightened 35 bps and reached a final landing spread of 115 bps over US Treasuries.

The bond got an A2 rating from Moody’s and an A+ rating from Fitch. It was priced at a coupon rate of 4.875% with maturity on July 25, 2033. The syndicate of joint lead managers and bookrunners included BNP Paribas, Citi, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, SMBC Nikko, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered.

The issuance is the first under a USD-3-billion bond programme through which Masdar seeks to meet its equity funding commitments on new renewable energy projects in the UAE and overseas. The company, which targets a global portfolio of 100 GW by 2030, said it will use the proceeds from all bond offerings to support solar, wind, renewable power transmission and distribution infrastructure, and battery storage projects.

A day earlier, Masdar announced a partnership with Japan’s Inpex Corp (TYO:1605) and Mitsubishi Chemical Group Corp (TYO:4188) to investigate the techno-economic feasibility of a commercial-scale green hydrogen to e-methanol and polypropylene project in Abu Dhabi. More specifics about this project are not yet available.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.892)