Sweden's ICA Gruppen has announced that it has completed a green bond issue of SEK 3.5 billion (€310 billion) under the company’s Swedish MTN programme.
The bonds of SEK 1.25 billion (€110 million) and SEK 2.25 billion (€20o million) were issued with tenors of three and five years, respectively, with fixed and floating rate tranches for both.
The issue, also the company's first after the launch of the Green Finance Framework, saw strong demand and was more than 1.5 times oversubscribed.
The Green Finance Framework was developed to align with the ICMA Green Bond Principles.
CICERO Shades of Green, now part of S&P Global, has provided a second party opinion of the framework, awarding it a 'Medium Green' shading and the governance score 'Excellent', the Swedish retailer noted.
Kerstin Lindvall, chief corporate responsibility officer at ICA Gruppen said, "Sustainability has for a long time been, and will continue to be, in the centre for ICA Gruppen as well as a key success factor for our business.
"The great interest in our green bond is encouraging and a clear testament that we have high credibility in what we do and our ambitious sustainability goals."
Green Finance Framework
ICA Gruppen has been working towards reducing its climate impact and the Green Finance Framework enables green financing of ICA Gruppen's continued sustainability efforts.
The areas covered by the framework are green buildings, renewable energy, clean transportation and eco-efficient products within the company's own brand range, ICA added.
Danske Bank was lead sustainability advisor during the establishment of the Green Finance Framework with Handelsbanken and SEB as co-advisors.
The bonds will be listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
