DekaBank, Helaba and LBBW bookrunners for a new EIB Climate Awareness Bond

Joint press release by DekaBank, Helaba and LBBW: Climate Awareness Bond placed exclusively for savings banks

Ap­proxi­mately half of all German savings banks (Sparkassen) have al­ready signed a voluntary commit­ment to climate-friendly and sustain­able business practices. The commit­ment entails among other points the manage­ment of their own invest­ment port­folios in accor­dance with recog­nized sustain­ability criteria as well as the pro­motion of aware­ness of sustain­able security invest­ments among customers.

In order to help savings banks imple­ment the goals arising from their commit­ment, Deka-Bank, Helaba and LBBW - them­selves also signa­tories to the commit­ment - have jointly placed a new Climate Awareness Bond (CAB) issued by the European Investment Bank (EIB) ex­clusive­ly for German savings banks. In this way, they are offering the savings banks an attractive oppor­tunity to invest their green own funds. The EU’s Climate Bank here­with engages actively with the savings bank group on ESG issues.

The bond, which is part of the EIB's CAB programme launched already in 2007, has a volume of EUR 500 million and matures on November 15th, 2030. Pro­ceeds from CABs are allo­cated to pro­jects that contri­bute substan­tially to climate change miti­gation, in line with the EU Taxonomy Regulation. This ap­proach was re­commended by the Sustainable Finance Commit-tee of the Federal Government in its final report of February, 24th.

Martin K. Müller, a member of DekaBank's Board of Manage­ment, comments: "We view this Climate Awareness Bond as making a sub­stantial contri­bution to suppor­ting the savings banks in their commit­ment to pro­tecting the climate."

Hans-Dieter Kemler, a member of Helaba's Executive Board, says: "The joint voluntary commit­ment was an impor­tant mile­stone and now, together with the savings banks, we are taking the next step in demon­strating our un­equivocal de­term­ination to act on climate change. We are de­lighted to have the oppor­tunity to share our extensive know-how in this field."

Dr. Christian Ricken, a member of LBBW's Board of Managing Directors respon­sible for the bank's financial market activi­ties, adds: "For many years, LBBW has built up a proven track record in placing green bonds. By taking part in this trans­action, we are lending our support to the savings banks in struc­turing their propri­etary invest­ments along more sustain­able lines."

Strong demand from the savings banks

The Climate Awareness Bond met with keen interest from the savings banks. At Eur 550 million, the final order book was over­subscribed even without distri­bution with other investors. The price was 12 basis points below mid-swap (an average reference rate used among banks). The order book exhi­bited a very granular structure with a total of almost 30 investors. As expected, the vast majority of orders came from savings banks, which are also signa­tories to the voluntary commit­ment.