- 2bn SEK Blue Bonds aimed at supporting water management and protection projects, including the Slussen development in central Stockholm
- Listing marks first Blue Bond on Nasdaq’s Nordic Sustainable Debt Market as well as Nordic Investment Bank’s first listing on Nasdaq
Stockholm, February 1, 2019 – Today, Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) welcomes Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) to its Nordic Sustainable Debt Market with the launch of a 5-year SEK 2 billion NIB Nordic–Baltic Blue Bond, issued to support NIB’s lending to selected water management and protection projects.
“This is our first Blue Bond and we are pleased to see a very strong outcome. A high quality order book supported by investors that are conscious of the challenges affecting the Baltic Sea area verifies that the investors acknowledge NIB’s work within water and environmental protection”, says Jens Hellerup, Head of Funding and Investor Relations at NIB.
While having to adhere to the same overall requirements as all other bonds within the green bond universe, a blue bond specifically targets sustainable water solutions and/or wastewater management.
The NIB Nordic-Baltic Blue Bond has been issued under NIB’s Environmental Bond Framework, the use of proceeds from the transaction will be allocated to a separate account for onward disbursement of loans to new water management and protection projects. NIB does not refinance existing project with NEB proceeds. The NIB’s Environmental Bond Framework has a Dark Green rating from Cicero.
“Our sustainable bond market more than doubled in size during 2018 and the inclusion of the Nordic Investment Bank is strong signal that this growth will continue into 2019,” said Ann-Charlotte Eliasson, European Head of Debt Listings at Nasdaq.” We aim to support all of our clients in their efforts to transition into a more sustainable future and hope that the NIB will inspire further issuers to join the market.”
One of the projects that will receive financing from the Nordic–Baltic Blue Bond is the Nya Slussen project in Stockholm. NIB is not only financing clean transport solutions at the Slussen traffic hub, but also the redevelopment of the Slussen water locks. The expansion of the water locks will increase the drainage capacity and accommodate higher floodgates by adding two larger water channels beside the locks.
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