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US firm launches $100m green bonds for low-carbon investment

Published

11 years ago

January 6, 2014

Blue & Green Tomorrow

Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (HASI) has announced the launch of green bonds worth $100m (£61m) that will be used to fund low-carbon projects.

The firm – which focuses on debt and equity investments in sustainable infrastructure projects – has offered an interest rate of 2.79% and set the maturity date – when investors will be repaid – at December 2019.

CEO Jeffrey Eckel said, “HASI continues to find new ways to finance sustainable infrastructure and we are delighted to have closed this fixed-rate transaction as part of our strategy to manage our interest rate exposure.”

He added that investment would go towards over 100 wind, solar and energy efficiency projects.

Investors would benefit from the Sustainable Yield Bonds (SYB) depending on the greenhouse gas emissions saved through the bond series, measured in metric tonnes per $1,000 (£611) of equivalent value.

“For example, the assets underlying Series 2013-1 are estimated to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 0.61 metric tonnes per $1,000 bond”, he said.

HASI said that savings on greenhouse gases were equal to taking about 12,700 cars off the road, saving 61,036 metric tonnes of emissions.

“We expedited this transaction due to strong investor demand and favourable market conditions”, Eckel said.

“This is also an important step toward the advancement of our plan to eventually issue publicly rated and traded debt and thus facilitate additional investment opportunities to invest in multiple layers of the capital stack supporting sustainable infrastructure”.

Climate finance NGO Climate Bonds Initiative welcomed the initiative. Its CEO Sean Kidney said, “While not all ‘green bonds’ have a direct greenhouse gas impact, this rigorous attempt to estimate the greenhouse gas impact per bond is a welcome financial tool in the critical task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”