[South Africa] Nedbank launches renewable energy bond on JSE

Nedbank recently announced the launch of an innovative Sustainable Development (SDG)-linked, tier 2 capital instrument. This instrument, the first of its kind in South Africa, is listed on the Green Bonds segment of the JSE.

The launch of this bond builds on Nedbank's established leadership in the sustainable development finance space, with the bank having previously offered two highly successful renewable energy 'Green' Bonds, which were significantly oversubscribed, and the proceeds of which are now funding a number of high-potential solar and wind renewable energy projects.

The significance of this sustainable capital instrument is further emphasised by the fact that it comes a little over a month after Nedbank’s shareholders unanimously voted in support of two new sustainable development resolutions. These commit the bank to adopting and publicly disclosing an energy policy and reporting fully on its approach to measuring, disclosing and assessing its exposure to climate-related risks.

This bond has been validated independently by the Carbon Trust who provided a second party opinion and reaffirmed that this capital instrument aligns fully to the Green Bond Principles, thereby lending full credibility and transparency to the utilisation of the proceeds to support sustainable development initiatives and adding significant value to the instrument and its investors.

www.nedbank.co.za

www.jse.co.za