Abu Dhabi: First Abu Dhabi Bank on Friday successfully priced its ‘green bond’ worth CHF200 million in the Swiss Franc market. The four-year bond was issued at SARON, or Swiss Average Overnight Rate, of +54 basis points and a coupon rate of 1.06 per cent.
This is FAB’s second public green issuance this year, following a 500 million euro green bond issued last week. “The bank was able to attract a high-quality Swiss investor base that has now developed name familiarity with FAB,” said the bank in a statement. “Pricing of the deal compares favourably to the bank’s USD funding levels when swapped back to USD as well as priced inside FAB’s CHF curve.”
“Given the challenging market conditions, FAB has been able to successfully access niche markets like the Euro last week and the Swiss Franc today that are helping us achieve our price and size objectives,” said Rula Al Qadi, Managing Director and Head of Group Funding at FAB. “This is our third Green Swiss Franc bond issuance, and we remain the only bank from the MENA region to issue green bonds in the Swiss Francs market.”
