EDC greenbond gets top rating (Sabong News)

The dual-tranche P5-billion ASEAN green bonds issuance of Lopez-led Energy Development Corporation (EDC) has been rated as the “best local currency green bond” by the Triple A Awards 2021, which is part of The Asset, a financial multi-media group. In a statement to the media, EDC noted that the recognition accorded to it had been under Triple A’s best Southeast Asian deals category for sustainable finance. The Asset, via its Triple A Country Awards, has been recognizing “the most laudable initiatives in banking, finance, treasury, and capital markets for over two decades with focus on activities in domestic markets,” according to EDC. Erwin O. Avante, chief finance officer of EDC, said the top rating accorded by The Asset was in “recognition of our efforts to encourage investors to take a strong stand for the environment through our ASEAN Green Bond program.” “The public ’s strong support for the expansion of our 100-percent renewable energy portfolio and the financial institutions’ commitment to focus only on funding low carbon power are crucial in speeding up that necessary transition to a decarbonized world.” Given the “code red alarm” for humanity to save the planet from irreversible peril, Avante opined “We all need to work together to achieve this while we still can.” The P5-billion ASEAN green bond has been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was listed with the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corporation (PDEx) in June 2021. That particular issue accounted for the first tranche of the P15 billion green bonds shelf registration of the company. “Due to strong demand from investors, the P3 billion base offer of the issuance was more than 10 times oversubscribed, allowing EDC to fully exercise the oversubscription option and raise another P2 billion,” the company emphasized. The firm specified that the bonds “were priced at the lowest end of the range at 2.8565% and 3.7305% for the 3-year and for the 5-year series, respectively.” It was on June 14 last year when the SEC had approved the shelf registration of EDC’s ASEAN green bonds, which had been eventually rated PRS Aaa, with stable outlook, by the Philippine Rating Services Corporation. The EDC issuance was the first ASEAN Green Bonds to be undertaken by a power company in the Philippines; and it has been reviewed by Sustainalytics to be aligned with the 2018 ICMA Green Bond principles. For the initial tranche of the issue, EDC had tapped BDO Capital & Investment Corporation and BPI Capital Corporation as joint issue managers, joint lead underwriters and bookrunners; while SB Capital Investment Corporation acted as the co-lead underwriter for the transaction.