{"id":23884,"date":"2017-12-12T14:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T06:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/?p=23884"},"modified":"2017-12-12T19:32:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T11:32:58","slug":"%e2%80%8bbdo-issues-first-green-bond-for-150-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/2017\/12\/12\/%e2%80%8bbdo-issues-first-green-bond-for-150-million\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bBDO Issues First Green Bond for $150 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philippines\u2019 largest bank, BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO), has issued its first\u00a0green bond, raising $150 million to expand financing for private sector investments that help to address\u00a0climate change. This marks the first green bond issued by a commercial bank in the Philippines. IFC, a\u00a0sister organization of the World Bank and a member of the World Bank Group, is the sole investor in the\u00a0bond.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bridging the infrastructure gap in Asia and beyond<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>Delegates at the 7th Executive Board Meeting of China-ASEAN Inter-Bank Association (CAIBA) recently met to share their views on the different topics underpinning the Meeting’s overall theme, titled\u00a0\u201cEnhancing Financing Cooperation between China and ASEAN within the context of Belt and Road Initiative.\u201d\u00a0BDO Unibank, Inc., the country’s largest bank, co-hosted the event.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This is also IFC\u2019s first green bond investment in a financial institution in East Asia and the Pacific. The\u00a0pioneering green bond will provide an alternative source of long-term green finance in the country and\u00a0contribute to the Philippines\u2019 target of reducing carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030 relative to its\u00a0Business As Usual (BAU) scenario and conditioned on international support.<\/p>\n

The funds will be used exclusively to finance climate-smart projects including renewable energy, green\u00a0buildings, and energy-efficient equipment.<\/p>\n

Nestor V. Tan, President & CEO of BDO, said, \u201cClimate change is a very real concern in the Philippines.\u00a0It is one of the most vulnerable countries globally to the impacts of such change. This bond demonstrates\u00a0our corporate commitment to come up with business solutions to address the challenges of sustainability.\u00a0This also aligns with our goal of growing BDO\u2019s climate business, and ultimately, fostering the nascent\u00a0climate finance market in the country. We are glad to partner with IFC, a global expert in green finance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vivek Pathak, IFC Director for East Asia and the Pacific, noted, \u201cThe issuance is an example of BDO\u2019s\u00a0leadership in developing climate finance in the country. By building on our long-term\u00a0partnership with\u00a0BDO, we aim to create a vibrant green bond market in the country and stimulate private sector investment\u00a0in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Further, by setting the standard and the benchmark for green\u00a0bonds issued in accordance with the Green Bond Principles which IFC helped develop, we hope to pave\u00a0the way for other issuers and investors to access financing through this product, at a time when demand\u00a0for green infrastructure and other sustainable investments are high.\u201d<\/p>\n

The financing is expected to help save 93,000 tons C02 emissions per year by 2022.<\/p>\n

The issuance is a culmination of an advisory engagement on sustainable energy finance between IFC\u00a0and BDO that started in 2010. It helped establish sustainable energy finance as a core part of the bank\u2019s\u00a0sustainability strategy. BDO expanded its climate-smart portfolio from zero to over $500 million, which\u00a0made it the country\u2019s market leader in climate financing.<\/p>\n

IFC is one of the world\u2019s largest financiers of climate-smart projects for developing countries. Since 2005,\u00a0IFC has invested $18.3 billion in long-term financing from its own account, and mobilized another $11\u00a0billion through partnerships with investors for climate-related projects. In all, IFC has issued $7.25 billion\u00a0in green bonds in 12 currencies. These issuances are part of a global strategy to develop the green bond\u00a0asset class in emerging markets.<\/p>\n

\n

This is a press release from BDO.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another achievement for BDO before the year closes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2017\/11\/bdo-logo-e1553064584206.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23886,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23884\/revisions\/23886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primer.com.ph\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}