SFL: Colonial Group Successfully Completes the Requalification of all its Outstanding Bonds Into “Green Bonds”
17 Februar 2022 - 2:47PM
Business Wire
The first and only Ibex company with 100%
“green bonds”
- All of the Group’s bondholders’ meetings have approved the
requalification of its outstanding bonds into “green bonds”, which
will not entail any changes to their terms and conditions, interest
rates or maturities.
- The Group has reached this milestone thanks to its portfolio of
environmentally sustainable investments, which has a value of more
than the €4.6 billion of its outstanding bonds.
- Colonial is Europe’s leader in the GRESB (Global Real Estate
Sustainability Benchmark) index, the main benchmark for ESG in the
real estate sector.
Regulatory News:
Today, Colonial and its French subsidiary Société Foncière
Lyonnaise (SFL) (Paris:FLY) completed the requalification of all of
the Group's outstanding bonds with an aggregated outstanding
principal amount of €4.6 billion into "green bonds", following the
approval of their bondholders.
The Group has reached this milestone thanks to its portfolio of
environmentally sustainable investments with a value equal to or
greater than the outstanding nominal of its outstanding bonds. As a
result of this transaction, Colonial becomes the first Ibex-35
company to have all its bonds qualified as "green". Green bonds
constitute an alternative to corporate financing in an environment
in which the awareness of companies on sustainability issues has
become more relevant than ever. This type of debt is intended to
finance "green assets" that would have a positive impact on the
environment. The Group’s intention is that any bonds it proposes to
issue in the future will be issued under the Group’s Green
Financing Framework as “green bonds” (subject to the availability
of green assets at the time of any such issue).
The bondholders have approved the modification of the “Use of
Proceeds” of such bonds from “General Corporate Purposes” to “the
financing or refinancing of a portfolio of eligible green assets”.
Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank and Freshfields
Bruckhaus Deringer have advised the Colonial Group in this process.
The requalification of the outstanding bonds into “green bonds”
will not entail any changes to their characteristics, terms and
conditions, interest rates or maturities.
“We are very satisfied with the willingness shown by the market
to join us in our commitment to sustainability”, explains Carmina
Ganyet, Colonial’s Corporate General Manager. According to Ganyet,
the requalification of the outstanding bonds into "green" and the
issuance of new bonds under this category represent” a competitive
advantage and an attractive investment for the capital markets,
whose interest in this type of investment is increasing”.
The Group actively manages its indebtedness and during the first
nine months of 2021, Colonial refinanced more than €1 billion,
optimising its average cost of financing, improving its diversified
debt profile and the maturities of its borrowings. This “liability
management” has enabled the Group to bring the cost of its debt
below 1.5%. At the end of September 2021, the Group had a net debt
of €4,645 million, of which €2,812 million corresponded to bonds
issued by Colonial and €1,290 million to bonds issued by SFL, in
addition to the €500 million bonds issued by SFL in October 2021.
The Group’s Loan to Value at 30 September 2021 stood at around
37%.
A Leading ESG real estate company in Europe
Colonial’s ESG strategy has been recognised over the last few
years by the main entities in this field in Europe. Moody’s
recently highlighted the Group’s excellent ESG policy in its latest
report on Colonial, noting the high governance standards and strong
environmental credentials of its high quality office buildings and
upgraded the company’s credit outlook from Baa2 “stable” to
“positive”. Currently, 93% of Colonial’s office portfolio benefits
from sustainability certifications, a percentage well above the
sector average in Europe, and has set itself the challenge of being
emissions neutral by 2050.
Moody’s recognition of Colonial’s ESG policy is added to
Colonial’s recent performance in the main ESG indices. The
international organisation CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) has
awarded Colonial its highest rating ("A") for its decarbonisation
policy. It should be noted that worldwide only 12 companies in the
real estate sector have this rating, 5 of them in Europe. GRESB
(Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark), the main ESG index
for the real estate sector, has ranked Colonial as the leading
office company in Europe, awarding it 94 out of a possible 100
points. Likewise, V.E. has placed Colonial in the top 3% of more
than 4,800 companies analysed each year. In addition, Colonial has
been recognised with the EPRA Sustainability Best Practices in 2021
for the sixth consecutive year.
About Colonial
The Colonial Group is a leader in the European prime office
market, present in the main business areas of Barcelona, Madrid and
Paris with a prime office portfolio of approximately 1.6m square
meters and an asset value under management of more than €12,000
million. Colonial is a SOCIMI and forms part of the Ibex 35 share
index.
About SFL
Leader in the prime segment of the Parisian commercial real
estate market, Société Foncière Lyonnaise stands out for the
quality of its property portfolio, which is valued at €7,300
million and is focused on the Central Business District of Paris
(#cloud.paris, Edouard VII, Washington Plaza, etc.), and for the
quality of its client portfolio, which is composed of prestigious
companies in the consulting, media, digital, luxury, finance and
insurance sectors. As France’s oldest real estate company, SFL
demonstrates year after year an unwavering commitment to its
strategy focused on creating added value for clients and,
ultimately, substantial valuation levels for its properties. SFL is
listed in Euronext París (Compartment A) and is rated BBB+ with a
“stable” outlook by S&P.
“The information included in this document should be read
together with all available public information, in particular the
information available on Colonial's website
www.inmocolonial.com.”
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