Ninth NRW.BANK.Green Bond / 500 million euros for energy-efficient projects in North Rhine-Westphalia

NRW.BANK’s new Green Bond was placed with investors within a very short period of time. The 500-million-euro bond was clearly oversubscribed. It is the first Green Bond in 2020 and the ninth Green Bond issued by the promotional bank of North Rhine-Westphalia. The NRW.BANK.Green Bond is used to refinance environmentally friendly projects in North Rhine-Westphalia such as renewable energies or clean transport.

 “Green investments are becoming increasingly popular; we see this both in the successful placement of the NRW.BANK.Green Bond and in the growing number of projects refinanced from such bonds,” says Michael Stölting, member of the Managing Board of NRW.BANK. “As far more energy-efficient loans are granted than in 2013, when we were the first German promotional bank to issue a green bond, we can issue new green bonds more quickly and more frequently and thus meet the growing demand.”

The latest NRW.BANK.Green Bond focuses on municipal climate projects such as the renaturation of the River Emscher, renewable energies such as wind energy and solar panels, clean transport and energy efficiency. The effectiveness of these investments is confirmed by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, whose analysis was last published for the 2018 NRW.BANK.Green Bond. This Green Bond, which also had a volume of 500 million euros, was used to refinance various environmental projects, mainly in the energy sector, and saved 307,000 tons of CO₂ equivalents per year. The analysis for the two NRW.BANK.Green Bonds issued in 2019 will be published in June 2020.

Most of the investors in the current bond come from Germany, the Netherlands and France and over 45 percent have a focus on sustainability. The issue was lead-managed by Citi and Unicredit. The bond is listed in Düsseldorf and on the Green Exchange of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange under ISIN: DE000NWB0AJ5. The minimum denomination is 1,000 euros.

On the investment side, NRW.BANK has invested in green issues since 2017 and has decided to increase the Green Bond portfolio to 400 million euros by the end of 2020 (previously: 300 million euros by 2020). NRW.BANK thus makes an important contribution to the qualitative development of the Green Bond market both as an investor and as an issuer.

For more information on the NRW.BANK.Green Bond, visit www.nrwbank.de/greenbondprogramme. To learn more about sustainability at NRW.BANK, see www.nrwbank.de/sustainability

Contact:
Caroline Gesatzki
Press Officer
Tel.: + 49 211 91741-1847
Mobile: + 49 151 15179261
caroline.gesatzki@nrwbank.de

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About NRW.BANK

NRW.BANK is the promotional bank of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Its mission is to support its owner – the state of North Rhine-Westphalia – in the completion of its structural and economic policy tasks. In its three promotional fields “Economy”, “Housing” and “Infrastructure/Municipalities”, NRW.BANK uses a wide range of promotion tools – from low-interest promotion loans to equity financing to advisory services. It cooperates with all banks and savings banks based in NRW on a competition-neutral basis. NRW.BANK takes into account the existing offers by the Federal Government, the North Rhine-Westphalian government and the European Union in the arrangement of its promotion.