Canadian green bond market riding high after record quarter
Canadian companies issued a record amount of green bonds in the second quarter, and bankers expect the debt instrument will become more popular because issuers are able to charge a premium that environmentally-friendly investors are willing to pay.
With corporations and financial institutions facing growing pressure from investors to embrace more environmentally-sustainable practices, green bonds are seen by some as one way to work towards the transition to a clean energy future.
One of the reasons they are catching on in the fixed-income world is the debt tends to be sold at a premium, consistently eking out one to six basis points over the price of a non-green bond, which lowers the cost of raising money for the issuer.
Green bond issuance in Canada rose to C$4.9 billion ($3.9 billion) in the second quarter, its best showing so far and up from C$2.6 billion in the first quarter, Refinitiv data showed. Global green bond issuance, however, slowed to $126 billion in the second quarter, from $130.8 billion in the first three months of the year.
Read more @Reuters
224 views
