BKW issues second green bond to finance its growth in new renewable energies

Successful issue of dual-tranche bond

On 5 April 2022, BKW successfully issued a dual-tranche bond of CHF 300 million on the Swiss capital market. One of the two tranches is a green bond of CHF 100 million with a coupon of 1.125% and a term of 7 years. BKW is using this bond to finance the purchase of six wind farms in France with an installed capacity of 105.7 megawatts. With this takeover, BKW has reached its goal of 75% renewable production capacity. BKW is now pursuing the ambition of increasing its portfolio of new renewable energies to an installed capacity of one gigawatt by 2026.

This is the second green bond from BKW, with the first issued in 2019. At the time it was the first green bond issued by a listed Swiss company for trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

The second tranche is a plain-vanilla bond of CHF 200 million with a coupon of 0.875% and a term of 4 years. This plain-vanilla bond is intended to refinance the bond worth CHF 200 million, which will mature at the end of April.

With its dual-tranche bond, BKW is using financing conditions on the capital markets – which remain historically attractive – to fund the growth strategy which it presented at the Capital Markets Day in October 2021.

Both bond terms fit perfectly into the existing maturity profile. The bond will be settled on 27 April 2022. The issuance was led by BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA, UBS AG and Zürcher Kantonalbank. The bond will be listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

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