BCP is the second Portuguese bank to prepare a sustainable debt issuance

  • ECO News
  • 27 September 2021

The Portuguese bank led by Miguel Maya is already contacting investors to gauge interest around this new issuance.

After Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) opened the door to this type of operation a fortnight ago, now it’s BCP that is in the market preparing a sustainable debt issuance, according to Bloomberg, quoted by Jornal de Negócios

The bank led by Miguel Maya has hired six investment banks to contact investors in Europe to gauge interest in senior debt securities. The roadshow has been underway since Monday, with the operation being advised by Barclays, Credit Agricole, JPMorgan, Millennium BCP, Natixis and Unicredit. The sustainable bonds will be rated “Ba1”, “BB” and “BBB” by Moody’s, Fitch and DBRS, respectively.

BCP is thus the second Portuguese bank to debut on the sustainable debt market, a bond that will finance social (Covid-19 recovery, microcredit, SMEs in disadvantaged regions) and environmentally friendly (energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, circular economy or sustainable management of water resources and waste) projects, according to a bank presentation.

Just a fortnight ago Caixa Geral de Depósitos issued €500 million in six-year bonds at a rate of 0.375%, the lowest interest rate ever for the public bank. The operation will allow CGD to go ahead with the repurchase of AT1 bonds, issued in 2017 as part of the recapitalisation process and for which it pays interest of over 40 million per year.