Nepi Rockcastle, which owns premier shopping centres in Central and Eastern Europe, says demand for its green corporate bond book build was “very strong,” with an oversubscribed book that peaked over €3bn.
The green €500m unsecured long seven-year Eurobond maturing in January 2032, issued through its subsidiary NE Property, carries a 4.25% fixed coupon, with an issue price of 99.124%.
The bond is expected to be rated BBB by S&P and BBB+ by Fitch in line with the €4bn EMTN Programme rating and the corporate rating, Nepi said in a statement on Thursday.
An amount equal to the net proceeds will be allocated to finance or refinance eligible green projects, it said.
“The bond benefited from a very strong demand, with an oversubscribed book that peaked over €3bn, reflecting international bond investors' confidence in Nepi Rockcastle's credit quality,” the group said.
The issue achieved broad institutional distribution, selling to asset managers (87%), other types of institutional investors and banks (13%), with demand coming from a multitude of geographies such as UK (59%), DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region (10%), France (9%) and Benelux (7%).
Application has been made for listing the bond with Euronext Dublin.
The joint lead managers on this bond issue were Deutsche Bank, Raiffeisen Bank International, SMBC, Societe Generale and UniCredit.
“Such market demand demonstrates both a consistent support for our environmental and growth commitment, as well as good understanding and appreciation of Nepi Rockcastle's achievements and results,” CFO Eliza Predoiu said.
“It is our commitment to leverage on this bond issuance towards growing our portfolio in a sustainable way, alongside clear and ambitious climate impact mitigation objectives,” she said.
Earlier in September, Nepi Rockcastle said it was in negotiations to acquire another shopping centre in Poland.
The group, which owns, develops and manages shopping centres in various countries, including Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Lithuania, said it was in talks to acquire Magnolia Park, a shopping centre in Wroclaw.
Nepi already holds several assets in Poland, including the Atrium Copernicus Shopping Centre in Toruń, which it acquired in November 2022, and Forum Gdańsk, which it bought in December 2022.
The JSE-listed company acts as a rand hedge for SA investors seeking exposure to European commercial real estate. It is valued at R95.4bn on the JSE.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.