Globe Trade Centre has successfully issued a debut unsecured green bond for €500 million. The bonds, bearing a coupon of 2.25% p.a., received a strong reception from the broad European fixed-income investor universe and were several times oversubscribed with a peak order book in excess of €1.4 billion.
Following the streak of landmark transactions and the first-ever publication of an ESG report, GTC continues to attract strong investor interest by successfully issuing €500m of 5-year unsecured green bonds. This follows the recently obtained investment grade rating of BBB- with a Stable Outlook by Fitch and Ba1 rating with Positive Outlook by Moody’s.
“Strong momentum saw books multiple times covered within just a few hours of launch, with the book attracting orders from over 120 high-quality accounts across Continental Europe and the United Kingdom. Despite a very busy market with ample Real Estate supply, the transaction attracted strong investor demand with books peaking in excess of €1.4bn. This is a highly successful debut issue for GTC” – commented Ariel Ferstman, GTC’s CFO and Member of the Management Board. “Delivering a benchmark international Eurobond in green format highlights our long term commitment to sustainability, further evidenced by the fact that 84% of our assets carry green certification” – he added.
GTC chose to issue Green Bonds following its commitment to certify its office and retail portfolio with the most recognizable LEED, BREEAM and DGNB certificates. An amount equivalent to the net proceeds from the issue will be used to refinance a portfolio of Eligible Green Assets as outlined in the GTC’s Green Bond Framework as well as financing eligible projects going forward. Currently, 84% of GTC's income-generating portfolio worth €1.9bn carries green certifications. As recently announced in GTC’s first-ever ESG report, the Group plans to achieve 100% green certification for all of their properties in CEE. The ambition is already realised in Poland, where all GTC offices have environmental certificates and are powered by green energy.
J.P. Morgan, who acted as joint global coordinator, sole ratings advisor and green structuring agent, observed: “This highly successful inaugural transaction on the international debt capital markets highlights GTC’s compelling credit story and commitment to being part of the green solution. The deal is the culmination of several months of intensive preparations, including GTC obtaining an investment-grade rating by an international rating agency for the first time".
Morgan Stanley, who acted as joint global coordinator stated: “Strong momentum saw books covered within an hour of launch, with the book attracting orders from over 120 accounts“.
The refinancing of secured loans with the green bonds follows GTC’s strategy to transition to a predominantly unsecured debt funding model. The green bond issuance will enable GTC to prepay a multitude of secured loans that will release around €840m of currently encumbered assets and significantly reduce GTC’s consolidated secured leverage ratio.
The issue achieved strong sponsorship from real money accounts, selling primarily to Fund Managers (85%), with most of the demand coming from the United Kingdom (56%) and Continental Europe, including DACH (19%), Benelux (7%) and CEE (5%).
The bond matures on 23 June 2026, and carries a fixed annual coupon at the rate of 2.25%.
J.P. Morgan acted as joint global coordinator, sole ratings advisor and green structuring agent. Morgan Stanley acted as a joint global coordinator. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Erste Group and Raiffeisen Bank International acted as joint bookrunners. Dentons acted as counsel to GTC and Clifford Chance acted as counsel to the joint book-runners.
